Fourteen Police Officers Including Twenty Individuals Apprehended in Mississippi Drug Bribery Sting
Fourteen current and former police personnel are part of 20 defendants arrested in the states of Mississippi and Tennessee for accepting bribes from drug traffickers in to provide law enforcement cover, in what officials described as "a monumental betrayal of public trust".
These apprehensions come after a years-long investigation by federal agents who posed as drug sellers. Among those charged were Mississippi sheriffs.
Federal officials initiated the sting after hearing reports from real narcotics criminals about being forced to provide corrupt payments to police members.
The bribery network reportedly reached beyond the Delta area of Mississippi into Memphis, Tennessee, and Miami, Florida.
"The original complaints that started the inquiry were from drug dealers," a U.S. attorney announced during a news conference on Thursday.
Some of the officers had accepted bribes between $20,000 (£15,000) and $37,000, the legal official noted.
The sting utilized undercover federal agents posing as narcotics sellers with simulated drugs, which the defendants allegedly believed to be 25kg (55lb) of the illegal substance.
"They betrayed the public," declared a high-ranking federal agent. "They violated the trust that the public placed in them, shamed the badge and weakened the hard work of good law enforcement officers across this area and locality."
The arrests take place as American authorities have begun aerial attacks in South America against suspected narcotics criminals.
