A Total of 14 Law Enforcement Officers Including Twenty Individuals Apprehended in Mississippi Drug Bribery Sting
Fourteen current and former police personnel are among twenty individuals charged taken into custody in Mississippi and Tennessee for taking illicit payments from drug traffickers in to provide law enforcement cover, in what authorities described as "a monumental betrayal of public trust".
The arrests follow a years-long probe by national law enforcement who acted as narcotics dealers. Two of the defendants were Mississippi sheriffs.
National authorities set up the sting after receiving complaints from real drug traffickers about being forced to provide bribes to officers.
This corruption scheme reportedly reached outside the Delta area of Mississippi into the city of Memphis in Tennessee, and Miami, Florida.
"Initial reports that started the inquiry were from drug dealers," a federal prosecutor stated during a press briefing on Thursday.
Certain law enforcement members had accepted illicit payments between $20,000 (£15,000) and $37,000, the legal official noted.
This operation utilized covert national officers acting as drug dealers with simulated drugs, which the defendants reportedly thought to be 25 kilograms (55 pounds) of cocaine.
"They sold out the public," stated a senior FBI official. "They violated the trust that the public had in them, disgraced the uniform and undermined the hard work of honest police members across this state and region."
These detentions take place as American authorities have embarked on air strikes in South America against alleged drug traffickers.
