Fourteen current and former police personnel are among twenty individuals charged taken into custody in the states of Mississippi and Tennessee for accepting bribes from drug traffickers in exchange for law enforcement cover, in what authorities described as "an enormous breach of the community's confidence".
These apprehensions come after a years-long probe by national law enforcement who posed as narcotics dealers. Among those charged were Mississippi sheriffs.
Federal officials set up the undercover operation after receiving reports from real narcotics criminals about having to pay bribes to police members.
The bribery network reportedly reached beyond the Delta area of Mississippi into Memphis, Tennessee, and Miami in Florida.
"The original complaints that began the investigation were from narcotics traffickers," a U.S. attorney stated during a press briefing on the day of the announcement.
Some of the officers had accepted illicit payments between $20,000 (£15,000) and $37,000, the legal official noted.
This operation utilized undercover federal agents acting as narcotics sellers with simulated drugs, which the defendants reportedly thought to be 25kg (55lb) of cocaine.
"They betrayed the community," stated a high-ranking federal agent. "They violated the confidence that the public placed in them, shamed the badge and undermined the efforts of good law enforcement officers across this area and locality."
The arrests occur as American authorities have embarked on air strikes in South America against suspected narcotics criminals.
