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Indian man arrested in US after officers mistake ‘Opium’ perfume bottle for narcotics
An Indian man in the US is trying to have his visa status restored after he was wrongfully arrested by officers who mistook his perfume bottle for narcotics.
An Indian man in the US is trying to have his visa status restored after he was wrongfully arrested by officers who mistook his perfume bottle for narcotics. For Kapil Raghu, a routine traffic stop turned into a month-long ordeal under ICE detention in May.
Raghu is an Indian national married to an American woman. He was living in the US and working towards American citizenship when he was detained on May 3.
Arrested for Opium
The Indian man was delivering pizzas in Arkansas when he was pulled over for having a reflective cover over his license plate, The Saline Courier reported.
“I was not doing anything wrong when he pulled me over. I was following all regulations,” Raghu said in an interview with The Saline Courier. “The problem was he didn’t know for what cause he was arresting me. I asked what the arrest was for. I didn’t even know what I did wrong.”
When an officer searched Raghu’s car, they found a small bottle labeled Opium. A police officer accused Raghu of having narcotics in his possession.
“You got a vial of opium that was in your center console,” the officer told Raghu. “Go and take a seat.”
Raghu immediately told the officer that the bottle contained cologne. However, cops refused to believe him and he was taken into custody.
Detained for 30 days by ICE
The Arkansas State Crime Lab tested the contents of the bottle and concluded that it contained perfume, not opium. However, Raghu still spent three days in the Saline county jail.
While he was in jail, immigration authorities found that he was in the US on an expired visitor visa. ICE officers took him into custody. He was sent to a federal immigration facility in Louisiana, where he was detained for 30 days.
Raghu’s wife says that they were already working to correct his expired visa when Raghu was arrested.
“Devastating” arrest
“Despite cooperating fully, my husband was arrested, jailed, and then transferred to ICE custody on May 6th, 2025. This was especially devastating because we already had an immigration attorney before his visa ever expired—we were actively working to fix his status the right way,” his wife Ashley Mays said in a GoFundMe page to raise funds for Raghu.
Raghu spent a month in ICE custody before being released in June. Although the charges against him have been dropped, his detention could become an obstacle in his journey to becoming a citizen of the United States.
“It is my understanding that, though released, Kapil now has a ‘deportation’ status, meaning he can be immediately deported for any minor offense, even jaywalking,” his attorney Mike Laux told The Guardian. “But, more crucially, this classification bars him from working and earning money for his family, which has been devastating for them.”
