Smugglers told federal agents they paid an Edcouch police officer $5,000 to stage a drug bust, according to court records. (CBS 4 News)

When Joe Cantu heard that an Edcouch policeman allegedly accepted a $5,000 bribe from a drug trafficker, he wasn’t surprised.

Edcouch employs seven full-time law enforcement officers, according to the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement. With just 3,000 residents, the city can’t afford to pay them well.

“The small towns grossly underpay their police officers,” said Cantu, a retired cop who spent 45 years in law enforcement. “And when they see an opportunity to make a quick $1,000 to $2000, they take it.”

Agents with Homeland Security Investigations, a division of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, recently arrested four people accused of participating in a drug trafficking organization. According to criminal complaints filed in federal court, they claimed to have worked with corrupt cops.

Informants told federal agents that Dimas DeLeon paid an Edcouch police officer $5,000 to fake a bust, according to the criminal complaint against him.

> Read the criminal complaint against Carlos Oyervides

> Read the criminal complaint against Mario Alejandro Solis

> Read the criminal complaint against Dimas DeLeon

> Read the criminal complaint against Carmen Meyer

On March 18, 2013, Edcouch police discovered approximately 19 kilograms of cocaine apparently abandoned in a taxi cab, according to the criminal complaints. Four bundles, though, actually contained wooden blocks — and the whole operation had been staged by drug traffickers.

The bust allowed Dimas and the drug traffickers he worked with to steal cocaine from their supplier without drawing suspicion, according to the criminal complaints. They later sold the cocaine themselves.

Informants told federal agents Dimas paid an Edcouch policeman $5,000 to arrange the bust.

CBS 4 News couldn’t reach Edcouch police Chief Eloy Cardenas for comment Wednesday. During a prior interview, Cardenas said he didn’t recall the incident and largely left individual cases to department investigators.

“Some of the kids these days, they’re going into law enforcement for the wrong reason,” Cantu said.