The Justice Department has launched a civil rights investigation into the sheriff’s department in Mississippi’s Rankin County after several of its deputies – including some who were in a self-styled “Goon Squad” – abused and tortured two Black men in a racially charged home raid last year.

The DOJ has received information about other troubling incidents, including deputies overusing stun guns and entering homes unlawfully.

Nearly two years after Michael Corey Jenkins and Eddie Terrell Parker survived hours of a sadistic torture plot conjured up by six white former Mississippi law enforcement officers, the U.S. Justice Department has launched a pattern or practice investigation into Rankin County,

Six former officers, who were members of a self-proclaimed "Goon Squad," were sentenced to decades in prison for torturing two Black men.

Authorities said the civil rights probe would examine whether officers systemically targeted minorities with excessive force.

U.S. District Judge Tom Lee called the former officers’ actions “egregious and despicable” and imposed sentences near the top of federal guidelines for five of the six.

The U.S. Justice Department on Thursday launched a civil rights probe into the Rankin County Sheriff's Department in Mississippi after several of its former officers known as the "Goon Squad" were prosecuted for torturing and sexually abusing two Black men.

The Justice Department will determine if allegations of widespread violence and improper searches amount to a pattern of discrimination in the department.