Operation Sideswipe: The Louisiana Fraud Conspiracy

This conspiracy is called Operation Sideswipe, so get ready to get wrecked.  In New Orleans, on Interstate 10,  there was a string of crashes over a period of ten years that looked random at first glance until insurance investigators noticed a pattern.  What started as a routine insurance claim exploded into one of the most shocking fraud conspiracies in Louisiana history.  Staged car wrecks, fake victims, corrupt lawsuits, and millions of dollars allegedly drained from trucking companies and their insurers.  Federal investigators say participants intentionally caused crashes with eighteen wheeler trucks, then filed fraudulent injury claims designed to look legitimate.  But the deeper investigators dug, the darker the story became.  According to the prosecutors, the operation involved slammers who would drive the cars, their recruited passengers, a spotter vehicle with witnesses, and their attorneys working together to orchestrate collisions along the interstate.  More than fifty people have been convicted or charged in the connection of this scheme.  As the investigations deepened, there was another twist.  No one expected allegations of witness intimidation, but a key cooperating witness in the investigation, Cornelius Garrison, was gunned down in 2020, a killing prosecutors linked directly to the growing federal case. This is the story of Operation Sideswipe.