United States attorney David L. Anderson holds an SD memory card as he speaks during a news conference on September 30, 2019 in San Francisco, California. The U.S. attorney's office of the Northern District of California announced a criminal complaint against Xuehua Peng, also known as Edward Peng, for acting as an illegal foreign agent that allegedly delivered classified U.S. national security information to the government of the People's Republic of China's Ministry of State Security. Justin Sullivan | Getty Images

A California man has been charged with acting as an illegal foreign agent as part of an elaborate FBI sting operation targeting Chinese intelligence operatives working in the U.S., the Justice Department said Monday. Xuehua "Edward" Peng was caught acting as a courier for China's Ministry of State Security (MSS) after the U.S. launched a "double agent operation" in March 2015, according to a criminal complaint filed in the Northern District of California and obtained by NBC News. As part of the investigation, a confidential FBI source met with MSS intelligence officers, provided them with classified information relating to national security concerns, and received financial payments in return, the criminal complaint says. On six separate occasions, Peng showed up to collect packages left at hotels in California and Georgia, the criminal complaint says. In four of the cases, the parcels contained SD cards containing classified information, and Peng left behind a total of $70,000 for the source who dropped them off, the complaint says. Peng, a naturalized U.S. citizen from China, is believed to have been "instructed in spycraft, practiced it, and knew that he was working for intelligence operatives of the People's Republic of China," the complaint says. He was arrested at his home in the city of Hayward last Friday.

"His arrest exposes and disrupts an operation by those Chinese intelligence officers to collect such information without having to step foot in this country," said Assistant Attorney General of National Security John C. Demers. The operation began after a March 2015 meeting in China which an MSS intelligence officer set up a trial run for passing along classified information that involved placing an SD card in a book, wrapping it in a bag marked for "Ed" and leaving it at the front desk of a hotel in Newark, Calif. More from NBCNews: Black girl who said 3 white boys cut her dreadlocks at school now says she was lying Ancient ape fossil yields surprising new insights about human evolution 20 kangaroos run over by vehicle in Australia in possible 'deliberate act of cruelty' Peng showed up in a silver Mercedes to collect the empty package on the day of the planned drop-off, June 13, 2015, the criminal complaint says. Then, on Oct. 8, the source emailed his handler saying he would be traveling to San Francisco for sightseeing on Oct. 24 - a coded message indicating the source would be conducting a dead drop at the same hotel on that day, the complaint says. The source left a parcel with an SD card for "Ed" with a receptionist at 8:30 a.m. Peng was observed entering the hotel less than an hour later and leaving with the package in hand, the complaint says. He flew to China the next day but returned to the U.S. and collected other packages at hotels in California and Georgia over the next few years, the complaint says. The last drop-off took place on June 30, 2018. After a coded conversation with an MSS agent, Peng showed up at a hotel in Columbus, Ga., where he taped a white envelope containing $20,000 to the shelf of a drawer inside a room, the complaint says.