Fourteen Police Officers Including Twenty Individuals Apprehended in the State of Mississippi Drug Bribery Sting
Fourteen current and former law-enforcement officers are part of 20 defendants taken into custody in Mississippi and Tennessee for accepting bribes from narcotics dealers in exchange for police protection, in what authorities labeled "an enormous breach of the community's confidence".
These apprehensions follow a years-long probe by national law enforcement who posed as drug sellers. Among those charged were county sheriffs from Mississippi.
National authorities initiated the sting after receiving reports from real narcotics criminals about having to pay corrupt payments to officers.
The bribery network allegedly extended outside the Delta area of Mississippi into the city of Memphis in Tennessee, and Miami in Florida.
"Initial reports that started the inquiry were from narcotics traffickers," a U.S. attorney announced during a news conference on Thursday.
Some of the officers had received bribes between $20,000 (£15,000) and $37,000, the legal official added.
The sting utilized covert national officers acting as drug dealers with simulated drugs, which the defendants allegedly believed to be 25 kilograms (55 pounds) of cocaine.
"They sold out the community," declared a high-ranking federal agent. "They betrayed the trust that the public had in them, disgraced the uniform and weakened the hard work of good law enforcement officers across this area and locality."
These detentions occur as U.S. officials have begun aerial attacks in the southern continent against suspected narcotics criminals.
