20 Mississippi lawmen indicted in bribery case tied to drug shipments

Federal authorities on Thursday announced indictments against 20 people, including 14 current or former law enforcement officers from the Mississippi Delta, alleging the officers accepted bribes in exchange for providing safe passage to individuals they believed were drug traffickers. The yearslong investigation resulted in arrests across multiple counties in Mississippi and Tennessee, officials said.

Two sitting Mississippi sheriffs, Washington County Sheriff Milton Gaston and Humphreys County Sheriff Bruce Williams, were among those arrested, along with a Sunflower County deputy identified by local officials as Marvin Flowers. Authorities said the defendants accepted payments, some as large as $20,000 and $37,000, to escort suspected narcotics shipments and to protect the movement of drug proceeds. One indictment alleges officers provided armed escort services on multiple occasions to an FBI agent who was posing as a member of a Mexican drug cartel.

The indictment contends the officers understood they were transporting about 25 kilograms, or 55 pounds, of cocaine through Mississippi Delta counties into Memphis. Federal prosecutors said in one instance drugs were routed to...