US prosecutors announced Tuesday a "historic" anti-corruption crackdown in New York's public housing agency, as 70 current and former employees were arrested on charges of bribery and extortion.

The operation constitutes the "largest single-day bribery takedown in the history of the Justice Department," Manhattan federal attorney Damian Williams said in a statement.

"These 70 current and former NYCHA (New York City Housing Authority) supervisors and other staff used their positions of public trust and responsibility to pocket bribes in exchange for doling out no-bid contracts," the Justice Department alleged.

Of the 70 people charged, 66 of them were arrested Tuesday morning in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and North Carolina.

Those in New York are expected to appear before a judge later Tuesday.

"Instead of acting in the interests of NYCHA residents, the City of New York, or taxpayers, the 70 defendants charged today allegedly used their jobs at NYCHA to line their own pockets," Williams said.

Investigators said they uncovered a widespread bribery network that thrived under a NYCHA policy allowing employees to award no-bid agency contracts to businesses performing services such as housing maintenance and repairs, if the cost was less than $10,000.

The accused then used this system to demand between $500 and $2,000 -- or sometimes more -- in cash from the vendors in exchange for the city contracts, the prosecutors alleged.

In total, this scheme saw the 70 defendants demand more than $2 million in corrupt payments related to more than $13 million in contracts.

"My Office is firmly committed to cleaning up the corruption that has plagued NYCHA for far too long so that its residents can be served with integrity and have the high-quality affordable homes that they deserve," Williams said.

The NYCHA is the largest public housing authority in the United States, the Justice Department said, providing homes for one in 17 New Yorkers in the city of 8.5 million.

The agency receives $1.5 billion in federal funding annually.