Fourteen current and former law-enforcement officers are part of twenty individuals charged taken into custody in the states of Mississippi and Tennessee for taking illicit payments from narcotics dealers in to provide law enforcement cover, in what officials described as "an enormous breach of public trust".
The arrests follow a years-long probe by federal agents who acted as narcotics dealers. Two of the defendants were Mississippi sheriffs.
National authorities set up the undercover operation after hearing reports from actual narcotics criminals about being forced to provide bribes to officers.
This corruption scheme reportedly reached beyond the Delta area of Mississippi into the city of Memphis in Tennessee, and Miami, Florida.
"Initial reports that began the investigation were from narcotics traffickers," a U.S. attorney announced during a press briefing on the day of the announcement.
Some of the officers had accepted bribes ranging from $20,000 (£15,000) and $37,000, the legal official added.
The sting utilized covert national officers acting as drug dealers with fake narcotics, which the defendants reportedly thought to be 25kg (55lb) of the illegal substance.
"They sold out the community," stated a high-ranking federal agent. "They violated the confidence that the people had in them, disgraced the uniform and undermined the efforts of honest police members across this state and region."
These detentions occur as American authorities have begun aerial attacks in the southern continent against suspected narcotics criminals.
