An FBI drug sting has netted 15 Chicago-area police officers -- including four Harvey policemen -- who face drug conspiracy charges based on accusations they provided armed security for what they believed were drug deals staged by undercover agents.

MORE: Read the U.S. attorney's office news release announcing the charges.

MORE: Read the federal affidavit.

The four Harvey officers, 10 Cook County officers and one Chicago policeman "sold out their badge" as part of a 17-man conspiracy that ended with a wave of arrests Tuesday morning, said Patrick Fitzgerald, U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Illinois.

The defendants are accused of accepting from $400 to $4,000 to serve as armed lookouts for dozens of fake drug deals coordinated by undercover agents.

Fourteen of the accused officers were released on bond Tuesday after two group hearings in a courtroom packed with family members, FBI agents and a phalanx of defense lawyers. The men were released without bond payments, but they were ordered to give up their guns and avoid contact with one another. The men and their family members rushed past TV cameras in the federal building lobby after their hearing.

Harvey Officer Archie Stallworth, 36, was arrested earlier and faces a hearing today, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. Two Cook County Sheriff's Department officers - Ahyetoro A. Taylor, 28, of Joliet, and Jermaine E. Bell, 37, of Lynwood - are serving with National Guard units in Afghanistan, according to the Justice Department. Those men will be sent back to the United States and arrested, said FBI Special Agent Robert Grant.

Charged in connection with the case:

-- Harvey police Officers Stallworth, of Harvey; Dwayne Williams, 42, of Country Club Hills; Antoine D. Dudley, 28, of Harvey, and James Engram Jr., 41, of Calumet City.

-- Cook County Correctional Officers Taylor and Raphael Manuel, 32, of Glenwood.

-- Cook County officers Diallo S. Mingo, 34, of Calumet City; Antwon Funches, 34, of Chicago; Timothy Funches Jr., 26, of Chicago; Daniel L. Lee, 31, of Chicago; Julius L. Scott Jr., 34, of Richton Park; Richard O. Hall Jr., 35, of Chicago; Robert L. Kelly Jr., 32, of Glenwood, and Bell.

-- Chicago police Officer Kyle T. Wilson, 31, of Chicago.

Also charged are Antonio B. McCaskill, 30, of Harvey, and Tavis Ramsey, 31, of Chicago, who are not law enforcement officers.

The men were charged with conspiracy to possess and deal large quantities of cocaine or heroin.

The investigation's centerpiece was an elaborate fake drug deal staged at suburban DuPage Airport, according to the charges. Taylor and Manuel boarded an airplane manned by two undercover agents and unloaded what they were told was 80 kilograms of cocaine before taking $4,000 each, according to the charges. This was one of many staged deals in 2007 and 2008, according to the charges.

Stallworth is accused of helping with a second DuPage airport deal. He took $1,000 to help an undercover agent pick up three duffel bags purportedly holding 30 kilograms of cocaine, according to the charges.

Fitzgerald said Tuesday he was not worried the officers might successfully argue they were illegally entrapped by the undercover agents. The officers acted willingly, and they were given chances to back out, he said.

FBI agents made at least one arrest at the Harvey police station Tuesday morning. Acting Harvey Police Chief Denard Eaves said in a written statement his department will not tolerate corruption.

"This office takes the oath of the badge very seriously and will be moving for immediate disciplinary action against all officers and/or employees involved," Eaves wrote in a statement.

Fitzgerald would not comment on any possible links between these charges and a January 2007 Illinois State Police raid at the station. The investigation followed reports about a gun that disappeared while in police possession and a host of unsolved murders in the city in recent years.

Fitzgerald said the arrests are no reason to suspect the entire Harvey department is tainted. He refused to connect the investigation to any higher officials in Harvey, but he noted that the investigation remains open. He encouraged residents to report suspected corruption.

"We're all ears," he said.

Agent Grant recalled a police chaplain telling him that police are the wire fence dividing society's wolves from its sheep.

"Unfortunately, today's charges show that a section of that wire was broken," Grant said.

-- Times staff writer Deborah Laverty and The Associated Press contributed to this report.