Fourteen current and former police personnel are part of twenty individuals charged arrested in Mississippi and Tennessee for accepting bribes from narcotics dealers in exchange for law enforcement cover, in what officials described as "an enormous breach of public trust".
These apprehensions follow a multi-year investigation by federal agents who acted as drug sellers. Two of the defendants were county sheriffs from Mississippi.
National authorities initiated the undercover operation after receiving complaints from actual narcotics criminals about being forced to provide corrupt payments to police members.
This corruption scheme allegedly extended beyond the Mississippi Delta region into the city of Memphis in Tennessee, and Miami, Florida.
"The original complaints 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 ranging from $20,000 (£15,000) and $37,000, the prosecutor noted.
This operation utilized covert national officers acting as narcotics sellers with simulated drugs, which the defendants allegedly believed to be 25kg (55lb) of the illegal substance.
"They betrayed the community," declared a senior FBI official. "They violated the confidence that the people placed in them, shamed the badge and undermined the efforts of good law enforcement officers across this area and locality."
The arrests take place as American authorities have embarked on air strikes in South America against alleged drug traffickers.
