More than 40 people, including politicians, officials and several rabbis have been arrested in a major FBI operation the US.

美国FBI一次主要行动中，包括政客、官员和一些法师在内超过40人被逮捕。

Three mayors from the state of New Jersey¹ and two members of the state legislature（立法机关） were among those held.

One man is accused of alleged³ kidney trafficking involving Israeli donors⁴.

Three hundred FBI agents raided dozens of locations in New Jersey and New York as part of a 10-year probe into corruption⁵ and money laundering⁶（洗钱）.

Prosecutors⁷ say the arrests were part of a "dual-tracked" investigation⁸.

Acting⁹ US Attorney Ralph Marra told reporters there were 29 suspects on what he termed the "public corruption" side of the investigation, including the politicians.

On the other side, he said, there were 15 suspects in connection with alleged international money-laundering, including the rabbis and their "associates".

'Vulnerable people'

Prosecutors accuse one man of dealing¹⁰ in human kidneys from Israeli donors for transplant for a decade.

It's alleged that "vulnerable people" would give up a kidney for $10,000 (£6,000) and these would then be sold on for $160,000 (£97,000).

Law enforcement officials say investigations¹¹ originally focused on a network they allege² laundered¹² tens of millions of dollars through charities controlled by rabbis in New Jersey and neighbouring New York.

It widened to include alleged official corruption with links to a New Jersey construction boom.

State legislators Harvey Smith and Daniel Van Pelt¹³ were also arrested.

Mr Marra said: "It seemed that everyone wanted a piece of the action. The corruption was widespread and pervasive（普遍的，蔓延的）. Corruption was a way of life for the accused."

He said politicians had "willingly put themselves up for sale" and clergymen（教士，牧师） had "cloaked their extensive criminal activity behind a facade¹⁴（建筑物的正面） of rectitude（诚实，正直）".

The BBC's Jane O'Brien says the money laundering ring reportedly spanned the US, Israel and Switzerland.

Jon Corzine, the Governor of New Jersey, said: "The scale of corruption we're seeing as this unfolds is simply outrageous¹⁵ and cannot be tolerated（忍受，容忍）."

Ed Kahrer, an FBI agent who has worked on the investigation from the start, said: "New Jersey's corruption problem is one of the worst, if not the worst, in the nation.

"It has become ingrained（根深蒂固的） in New Jersey's political culture," he said.

Another FBI agent said: "The list of people we arrested sounds like it should be the roster¹⁶（执勤表，花名册） for a meeting of community leaders, but sadly they weren't meeting in a boardroom this morning, they were in the FBI booking room."

Correspondents say the number of people arrested is large even by New Jersey standards, where more than 130 public officials have either admitted to corruption or been found guilty of it since 2001.