A Middlesex County man has been arrested in a large drug money-laundering scheme involving several the cartel of the drug kingpin, El Chapo.
PRETTY AMBOY -- A Middlesex County man who had been on the run was recently extradited to Florida after being arrested in a large international money-laundering scheme allegedly connected to the Mexican drug lord, Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzman.
Ambioris Acosta de la Cruz, 41, of Perth Amboy, was arrested last month by the Middlesex County Sheriff's Office on an outstanding warrant from Miami-Dade County, Fla.
He was being held at the Middlesex County Adult Correctional Facility before being extradited. He appeared in Miami-Dade County Superior Court earlier this week on charges of racketeering and money laundering. He is being held there without bail, according to Miami-Dade court records.
The arrest was part of a federal probe into the "black market peso exchange" involving manipulating and funneling Colombian drug profits through the U.S. financial system, according to the arrest warrant filed in Miami-Dade court earlier this year.
Officers arrested Cruz on Kirkland Avenue without incident, according to a statement from the sheriff's office.
Cruz was part of a roughly $200,000 transaction arranged by one of the main suspects in the probe, Ivan Andres Lizarazo Mendoza. The transaction was originally supposed to take place in New York City but was ultimately carried out in Perth Amboy, according to the warrant.
On Jan. 6, 2015, Cruz handed off the cash to an undercover Homeland Security agent at a strip mall on State Street, roughly a mile away from city hall, according to the warrant. The money was wrapped in plastic and "contained within a box designed to house an Xbox gaming system" inside a shopping bag.
Federal agents then followed Cruz back to an apartment building on Hall Avenue, the warrant said.
Once Mendoza verified the transaction, he instructed the money to be wired to various businesses in Florida, New York City, and Venezuela, the warrant said.
Throughout the two-year investigation -- dubbed "Operation Neymar" -- investigators determined that the enterprise was capable of laundering roughly $1 million a month, "and sometimes significantly more." Between July 25, 2014, and Aug. 24, 2015, agents seized more than $1 million as well as qualities of cocaine, heroin, cannabis, and other items associated with drug trafficking, according to the warrant.
The profits allegedly belonged to two organizations -- one of which was Guzman's Sinaloa cartel, which U.S. government agencies have generally viewed as the world's most powerful drug-trafficking organization, the warrant said. Guzman was arrested earlier this year for the third time after escaping through a tunnel from Mexico's most secure prisons.
A total of 18 suspects were arrested and charged in the operation. They are being held on similar money laundering and racketeering charges, according to the warrant.
A trial hearing for Cruz has been scheduled for Oct. 24.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security, the Miami-Dade Police Department and the Miami-Dade Office of the State Attorney were among the agencies involved in the investigation.
Spencer Kent may be reached at skent@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @SpencerMKent. Find the Find NJ.com on Facebook.