A group of 14 serving and previous law-enforcement officers are part of twenty individuals charged arrested in the states of Mississippi and Tennessee for accepting bribes from drug traffickers in to provide law enforcement cover, in what authorities described as "an enormous breach of public trust".
The arrests come after a multi-year probe by national law enforcement who posed as narcotics dealers. Among those charged were Mississippi sheriffs.
Federal officials set up the sting after receiving reports from actual narcotics criminals about having to pay corrupt payments to officers.
This corruption scheme reportedly reached beyond the Mississippi Delta region into Memphis, Tennessee, and Miami, Florida.
"The original complaints that began the investigation were from drug dealers," a U.S. attorney stated during a news conference on the day of the announcement.
Some of the officers had accepted illicit payments ranging from $20,000 (£15,000) and $37,000, the legal official added.
The sting involved covert national officers posing as drug dealers with fake narcotics, which the accused individuals allegedly believed to be 25 kilograms (55 pounds) of cocaine.
"They betrayed the public," declared a senior FBI official. "They betrayed the confidence that the public placed in them, disgraced the uniform and undermined the hard work of good law enforcement officers across this area and locality."
These detentions take place as American authorities have begun aerial attacks in the southern continent against suspected narcotics criminals.
