JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Federal authorities on Thursday announced indictments against 20 people, including 14 current or former Mississippi Delta law enforcement officers, that allege the officers took bribes to provide safe passage to people they believed were drug traffickers.
The yearslong investigation swept across multiple counties in the Mississippi Delta region of Mississippi and Tennessee. Two Mississippi sheriffs, Washington County Sheriff Milton Gaston and Humphreys County Sheriff Bruce Williams, were among those arrested.
Some bribes were as large as $20,000 and $37,000, authorities said at a news conference.
“It’s just a monumental betrayal of public trust,” U.S. Attorney Clay Joyner said.
Sunflower County Sheriff James Haywood in Mississippi confirmed the arrest of a deputy, Marvin Flowers, on Thursday morning. Haywood said Flowers worked for the department for 13 years.
It wasn’t immediately known if Flowers or the others had lawyers who could comment for them.
Multiple Mississippi law enforcement agencies and sheriffs have faced federal scrutiny in recent years.
In 2024, the former Hinds County Sheriff Marshand Crisler was convicted of accepting $9,500 in bribes and knowingly providing ammunition to a convicted felon. The same year, former Noxubee County Sheriff Terry Grassaree pleaded guilty to making false statements to the FBI while being questioned about requesting and receiving nude photos from a female inmate.
William Brewer, a former Tallahatchie County sheriff, was sentenced to six years in prison in 2019 for extorting brides from a drug dealer.
In 2023, six law enforcement officers pleaded guilty to state and federal charges for torturing two Black men, a case that sparked a Department of Justice investigation into the Rankin County Sheriff’s Office. A similar DOJ probe concluded last year that officers of the Lexington Police Department discriminated against Black people.
___ This version has been corrected to show that from Mississippi and Tennessee were charged, not just people from Mississippi.
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Associated Press writer Kate Brumback in Atlanta contributed to this report.
