A group of 14 serving and previous law-enforcement officers are part of 20 defendants arrested in the states of Mississippi and Tennessee for taking illicit payments from narcotics dealers in to provide police protection, in what authorities described as "a monumental betrayal of public trust".
These apprehensions follow a years-long investigation by federal agents who acted as narcotics dealers. Among those charged were county sheriffs from Mississippi.
National authorities set up the sting after hearing reports from actual narcotics criminals about having to pay bribes to officers.
The bribery network reportedly reached beyond the Mississippi Delta region into the city of Memphis in Tennessee, and Miami, Florida.
"The original complaints that began the investigation were from drug dealers," a U.S. attorney announced during a press briefing on Thursday.
Some of the officers had received bribes between $20,000 (£15,000) and $37,000, the legal official noted.
This operation utilized covert national officers posing as narcotics sellers with fake narcotics, which the defendants reportedly thought to be 25 kilograms (55 pounds) of the illegal substance.
"They sold out the community," stated a senior FBI official. "They betrayed the trust that the public placed in them, shamed the uniform and undermined the hard work of good law enforcement officers across this state and region."
These detentions occur as U.S. officials have begun aerial attacks in the southern continent against suspected narcotics criminals.
