Fourteen current and former police personnel are part of twenty individuals charged arrested in Mississippi and Tennessee for taking illicit payments from narcotics dealers in to provide police protection, in what officials described as "a monumental betrayal of the community's confidence".
These apprehensions follow a multi-year probe by national law enforcement who posed as drug sellers. Two of the defendants were Mississippi sheriffs.
Federal officials initiated the sting after hearing reports from actual narcotics criminals about having to pay corrupt payments to police members.
The bribery network reportedly reached beyond the Delta area of Mississippi into Memphis, Tennessee, and Miami, Florida.
"Initial reports that began the investigation were from narcotics traffickers," a federal prosecutor stated during a press briefing on the day of the announcement.
Some of the officers had received bribes ranging from $20,000 (£15,000) and $37,000, the legal official added.
This operation utilized undercover federal agents acting as narcotics sellers with simulated drugs, which the accused individuals allegedly believed to be 25 kilograms (55 pounds) of cocaine.
"They betrayed the public," declared a high-ranking federal agent. "They betrayed the confidence that the public had in them, shamed the uniform and undermined the efforts of honest police members across this state and region."
These detentions take place as American authorities have begun aerial attacks in the southern continent against suspected narcotics criminals.
