NYP.
One of the youngest mayors in Louisiana history was arrested Tuesday for his role in an alleged drug-trafficking ring that moved opioids, pot and MDMA — two years to the day of his swearing-in ceremony.
Tyrin Truong, the 25-year-old mayor of the tiny eastern Louisiana city of Bogalusa, was collared for allegedly organizing “entertainment with a prostitute” at an AirBnB rented with public money during a mayor’s conference in Atlanta, NOLA.com said.
Truong — elected to his post at the tender young age of 23 — was also buying drugs in Louisiana, Northshore District Attorney Collin Sims told the outlet.
“This conduct is not going to be tolerated,” Sims said in an interview. “The citizens of Bogalusa deserve better and we’re not finished. We’re just getting started.”
The arrest likely signals the end of Truong’s brief political career, which began in November 2022 when he knocked incumbent Mayor Wendy O’Quin Perrette out of the city’s top spot.
When he was sworn in on Jan. 7, 2023, Truong became the city’s youngest mayor and tied the state record for youngest mayor in Louisiana history, NOLA.com said.
During his campaign, the Washington University graduate and former intern for US Rep. Lacy Clay, a Missouri Democrat, said he’d returned home to “make a difference” and reverse the souring fortunes of the 10,000-person city near the Alabama border.
As mayor-elect, he sought the resignation of the city’s police chief after a black man died in custody — and once in office, he pushed for law enforcement to patrol the streets more often.
He also had clear ambitions for higher office, and ran unsuccessfully for chair of the state’s Democratic Party last year.
But he’s also seen his share of trouble — in July, the state’s Legislative Auditor’s Office claimed he’d made improper payments to employees and signed illegal contracts with vendors, among other things.
His half-brother was also arrested in 2023 in connection with a fatal shooting at a high school basketball game — prompting Truong to tell a local station that, “We all have family members doing things we are not proud of.”
It appears he, too, can join that list.
