Opa-locka Mayor Myra Taylor stood before hundreds of supporters and declared the city was about to enter a new age: improved roads, a renovated historic City Hall, and a public arts campaign that would transform the community. “You can't stop a moving train,” she beckoned the crowd at her annual address.

But what most of the guests didn't know that night: Opa-locka was hopelessly broke and the mayor and others were targets of the largest public corruption investigation in South Florida in a generation.

City leaders turned the levers of government into their own enterprise, spending lavishly on pet projects, insider deals and community parties even while the city was losing millions each year in revenue.

Some officials turned to threats and bribes, showing up at businesses to shake down owners for tens of thousands in exchange for removing code violations and granting business licenses. In other instances, they threatened to turn off water connections into homes unless residents paid cash bribes.

One of the poorest communities in Florida, Opa-locka had become a city for sale.