Fourteen current and former law enforcement officers are among 20 defendants charged in Mississippi and Tennessee with accepting bribes from drug traffickers for police protection, in what officials called a “blatant betrayal of the public trust.”
The arrests followed a years-long investigation by federal agents posing as drug traffickers. Two of the defendants were Mississippi sheriffs.
Federal officials launched the operation after hearing complaints from actual drug dealers about having to bribe officers.
The bribery network allegedly extended beyond the Mississippi Delta region to Memphis, Tennessee, and Miami, Florida.
“The initial complaints that started the investigation came from drug traffickers,” Northern District of Mississippi U.S. Attorney Clay Joyner said at a news conference Thursday.
Some of the officers received bribes ranging from $20,000 to $37,000, the prosecutor added.
The case involved undercover federal agents posing as drug dealers with counterfeit drugs that the defendants believed were 25 kilograms (55 pounds) of cocaine.
FBI Deputy Director Andrew Bailey said the accused officers “sold out the public.”
“They betrayed the trust placed in them by the public, disgraced the badge and undermined the hard work of good law enforcement officers in this state and region,” Bailey said at a news conference.
The arrests come as US officials launched air strikes in South America against suspected drug traffickers.
