Fourteen current and former police personnel are part of 20 defendants taken into custody in the states of Mississippi and Tennessee for taking illicit payments from narcotics dealers in exchange for police protection, in what authorities labeled "a monumental betrayal of the community's confidence".
The arrests come after a multi-year investigation by federal agents who acted as narcotics dealers. Two of the defendants were county sheriffs from Mississippi.
Federal officials set up the undercover operation after hearing reports from actual drug traffickers about having to pay bribes to police members.
The bribery network reportedly reached beyond the Delta area of Mississippi into the city of Memphis in Tennessee, and Miami, Florida.
"Initial reports that began the investigation were from drug dealers," a federal prosecutor stated during a press briefing 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 undercover federal agents posing as narcotics sellers with fake narcotics, which the accused individuals reportedly thought to be 25kg (55lb) of the illegal substance.
"They betrayed the public," declared a high-ranking federal agent. "They betrayed the confidence that the people placed in them, disgraced the uniform and weakened the efforts of honest police members across this area and locality."
These detentions occur as American authorities have embarked on aerial attacks in the southern continent against alleged drug traffickers.
