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Secrets of El Chapo's money laundering scheme revealed: How brokers used nicknames like 'Tony Montana' to funnel US cocaine dollars back to cartels in Mexico and Colombia using sophisticated 'layering' technique

A joint investigation between Miami-Dade authorities and federal investigators led to 22 suspects being charged in money laundering ring
The illicit operation involved $1 million a month in drug money
Suspects have links to Colombian cartels and El Chapo's drug gang
Scheme is 'very sophisticated,' a federal investigator told Daily Mail Online

Published: 15:34 GMT, 7 April 2016 | Updated: 06:47 GMT, 8 April 2016

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Twenty-two people suspected of laundering millions of dollars in Colombian cocaine profits are being charged by Miami prosecutors.

The money laundering ring involved about $1 million a month in drug money from throughout North America.

'It's very sophisticated,' John Tobon, Deputy Special Agent in Charge for Homeland Security Investigations, told Daily Mail Online.

The money launderers, Tobon said, used a system involving illicit money, illegal foreign exchange transactions, and customs fraud to transfer drug dollars from the United States to Colombia.

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$134,980 in cash seized in Chicago in August 2015 as part of the investigation that led to 22 being charged

Essentially, the scheme works like this:

Mexican cartels buy drugs on credit from Colombian cartels, and sell the narcotics in the United States for dollars.

In order for those dollars to end up back in Colombia, where they can be used to pay the original seller of the drugs back, the Mexican cartels working in the United States use money brokers.

A money broker will work out a deal with a legitimate business in Colombia - for example, a phone importer - who wants to buy U.S. dollars for Colombian pesos, and then use the dollars to pay for merchandise in the United States.

The pesos that the phone importer pays the broker are used by the broker to pay back the Colombian cartel - and the dollars the phone importer receives, and uses to import merchandise, are the dollars the Mexican cartel earned from selling drugs in the United States.

Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle announced the charges at a press conference Thursday (pictured)

Pictured, two of the suspects involved in the money laundering scheme. Left, Joaguin 'El Chapo' Guzman's main money launderer, Juan Manuel Alvarez Inzunza. Right, Sidia Milady Lizarazo Mendoza, sister of a top Colombian cartel associate

Some of the suspects were involved with the notorious Sinaloa Cartel, headed by Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzman, pictured in 2014

The suspects used nicknames that included 'Tony Montana,' 'Pitbull,' and 'Neymar,' the Miami Herald reported Thursday.

Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle said the case is a joint investigation with federal Homeland Security Department officials.

'It's highly advanced. It is very complicated, very broad and the layering – one transaction after another transaction – all designed to hide what they are doing,' Rundle told the Herald.

To expose the scheme, investigators used wiretaps, surveillance, informants, and the information contained in thousands of financial transactions, the Herald reported.

No business owners were charged but Rundle says they should be on notice when handling suspicious transactions.

A top suspect - although he has not yet been charged - was Joaguin 'El Chapo' Guzman's main money launderer, Juan Manuel Alvarez Inzunza, 34, who was arrested in Mexico last month.

Those charged in 'Operation Neymar,' as the investigation was dubbed, included two brokers for the Colombian Cali Cartel: Ivan Alfredo Castro Santana and Ivan Andres Lizarazo Mendoza.

They were charged with racketeering and money laundering. Lizarazo's sister, Miami resident Sidia Milady Lizarazo Mendoza, is also being charged with the latter offense.

Authorities also seized about $1 million in cash during the investigation.