The Miami-Dade County's state attorney is investigating a stream of racist emails and pornographic images exchanged between as many as 16 local police officers via their work email.

According to area TV station Local 10, District Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle disclosed the shocking revelations during a Thursday news conference where it was also revealed that the officers were involved in as many as 540 cases that could now come under additional review.

Rundle stressed that her office will not prosecute any cases that bear a hint of being racially tainted.

Recently hired Miami Beach Police Chief Daniel Oates said his predecessor had been asked to conduct an internal probe concerning the matter and the overall conduct of some of his officers, but no action was ever taken.

Chief Oates identified Lt. Alex Carulo and former Major Angel Vazquez as the "primary purveyors of this pornography," adding that he considered it to be "explicit and disgusting, and there was a high volume of it."

On Thursday, Carulo was fired, while Vazquez retired early last summer. Rundle noted that all of the emails were exchanged during the previous administration.

"Not only are we all offended by the nature of these emails, but we find it equally offensive that this conduct seems to have been accepted within the department," she added. "In fact, it seems to have permeated through to the highest ranks of the administration of the department."

Among the images found to be exchanged was an autopsy photo of Raymond Herisse, who was fatally shot by police on Memorial Day in 2011. Carulo had been a captain within the department before he was recently demoted by Oates.

The news comes as yet another black eye for Miami Beach police, who earlier this month saw Det. Phillipe Archer suspended after video emerged of him punching a handcuffed woman in the face and kicking her in 2013. The Miami Herald reports Archer is a 19-year veteran and his suspension is for a month.

In a statement, City Manager Jimmy Morales said he has made rooting all forms of corruption within the department his primary mission.