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Mansfield said he expressed his concerns to then-Sheriff Glenn Maynor in the late 1990s, but nothing happened. Maynor, who resigned in 2004 citing health problems, did not respond to requests for an interview.

Sheriff Ken Sealey, who came into office in 2005, did not return repeated phone calls.

The two deputies who were accused of taking part in the Virginia kidnapping were not members of the drug unit. They investigated crimes involving juveniles. One of the two, Patrick Ferguson, has pleaded guilty to his role in the kidnapping and is cooperating with investigators, said his lawyer, Robert Nunley of Raleigh.

Nunley explained that Ferguson started having financial problems in 2002 and became suspectible to lucrative offers from drug dealers and the officers working with them.

Here is how Nunley says the deputies assisted drug dealers: Tipped off by local dealers, the deputies would conduct traffic stops on people delivering drugs to the dealers. The deputies would seize the drugs, deliver them to the dealers and be paid for their efforts, Nunley said. At other times, the dealers would have the deputies stop people who had made their drug deliveries and been paid in cash. The deputies would seize the cash, return it to the dealers and get paid, Nunley said.

"There were a number of people involved in drugs who ... took advantage of their connections with law enforcement to have their cake and eat it too -- to sell the drugs and get their money back and conversely to get the drugs at no cost," Nunley said.

Beyond that, Ferguson and Deputy Vincent Sinclair, along with several drug dealers, were charged with committing the Virginia kidnapping. Sinclair is also accused of holding a drug dealer hostage until a $150,000 ransom was paid and of lighting another dealer's arm on fire.

The county copes

Some Robeson residents expressed surprise at the number of deputies facing charges.

"I think we're all getting shocked," said Jerry Stephens, a businessman, soon-to-be Robeson County commissioner and president of the local NAACP branch. "You expect every once in awhile to have one case, possibly maybe two. We've got so many. We don't know how to take all the corruption down here. ... There's gossiping and talking at the coffee shops about who is going to be next."

Robeson County District Attorney Johnson Britt said more criminal charges are possible.

But the indictments have rippled through the courthouse. Britt said his staff had to dismiss charges against as many as 300 drug defendants because they cannot prosecute crimes based on the testimony of indicted deputies. They have discovered one man who was wrongfully convicted in a drug case, Britt said.

Britt says suspicions rose as the deputies appeared to be living beyond their means.

Britt, who has served as the county's chief prosecutor for 12 years, says a combination of factors led the deputies to commit crimes: a large county geographically, a high crime rate and a small department where deputies have long tenure and become familiar with the criminals.

"It's a combination of things that breeds corruption," Britt said.

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