A cop, a former jail deputy and another man face preliminary hearings today after they were all arrested in a federal investigation into police corruption in the metro area.

The federal indictment against Dorian Williams alleges the 25-year old DeKalb County police officer was willing to shoot to kill if the drug deals he was protecting went bad.

Federal agents said he even suggested moving the drug deals to a high school parking lot where the exchange of backpack full of drugs for backpacks full of cash would seem less conspicuous.

Williams, former DeKalb Corrections Officer Monyette McLaurin, 37 and another man, 26-year old Gregory Lee Harvey, are all scheduled to be in federal court today for preliminary hearings.

“If convicted the officers face prison time in the neighborhood of 10 years,” News/Talk WSB legal expert Ron Carlson says. “Little wonder because the destruction of public confidence resulting from their conduct is massive.”

They are among 15 people, ten of them law officers, caught up in the federal sting investigation that snared what agents say were dirty cops willing to protect drug dealers in exchange for thousands of dollars.

“They would collect up to $6,000 or $7,000 per drug deal,” Carlson says. “There were over 50 such cocaine deals. The problem for the officers was many of these transactions were a sting set up by federal authorities.”

“The breadth of the corruption here is very disturbing,” said U.S. Attorney Sally Yates when the suspects were arrested last week.

The question is, just how far did that corruption go?