An employee of Banco Santander’s Chile unit was among 18 suspects detained Tuesday as Chilean authorities moved against an alleged $85-million money-laundering network tied to the Venezuelan criminal organization Tren de Aragua, Bloomberg reported.

The early-morning operation, carried out by Chile’s Investigative Police (PDI), prosecutors, and prison police, targeted an illicit financial network linked to extortion, human trafficking for sexual exploitation, and smuggling, according to the local prosecutor’s office, Fiscalía Metropolitana Sur. The sting spanned three of Chile’s 16 regions and involved international coordination, the news organization reported. 

Tren de Aragua, a transnational organization with roots in Venezuela, has been blamed by authorities in Chile, the United States, and other countries for spikes in crime. In this case, the group allegedly organized large-scale events for migrant communities and collected monthly extortion payments, according to the PDI as cited by Bloomberg.

The Santander employee allegedly received extortion payments and funneled them to senior figures in the criminal organization, Bloomberg reported, citing a person familiar with the matter who was not authorized to speak publicly. The employee opened accounts at Banco Falabella and Scotiabank to accumulate the funds, Bloomberg reported, citing investigative news outlet Ciper.

Lead prosecutor Héctor Barros described the case as one of Chile’s largest laundering investigations tied to Tren de Aragua. “We are talking about more than 78 billion pesos that left our country through crypto companies to other countries,” Barros said, according to Bloomberg.

The Chilean unit of Spain’s Banco Santander said it is cooperating with the investigation and maintains a zero-tolerance policy toward any conduct that breaches the law or current regulations, adding that “should individual responsibility be determined, all appropriate measures will be taken,” the news outlet said.

The arrests come as Chilean President José Antonio Kast, who took office in March vowing a tougher crackdown on crime and irregular migration, pushes a broader security agenda. In a speech Monday, Kast announced the government would launch seven task forces to combat threats including kidnapping and organized crime, according to the report.