STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- A Staten Island man was sentenced for international arms trafficking and money laundering, officials announced on Thursday.

United States District Judge Kiyo A. Matsumoto sentenced Albert Veliu, 37, to nine years in prison after he purchased and sold an anti-tank rocket launcher and AK-47 rifles in Kosovo, according to the U.S. Attorney, Eastern District of New York.

“The arrest, conviction and today’s sentencing of Veliu mark an important victory for law enforcement in disrupting an international money laundering and arms trafficking network ready, willing and able to provide a pipeline of lethal weaponry to purported drug cartels in Mexico,” said United States Attorney Richard P. Donoghue.

In the early stages of the investigation in October 2017, Veliu agreed to help an undercover officer from the Drug Enforcement Administration in exchange for a commission, federal prosecutors say.

The undercover DEA officer gave Veliu about $800,000 to launder, prosecutors say.

The Staten Islander then coordinated a money laundering scheme in which he planned to use the cash received in exchange for “clean” checks, which were in fact fraudulent, made out to the Shell Corporation, according to prosecutors.

As the investigation progressed, Veliu told another undercover DEA officer he had access to firearms in Kosovo in Eastern Europe and was willing to broker a sale, prosecutors say.

The undercover officer made a deal with Veliu that involved having the Staten Island man travel to Kosovo to give the firearms to an individual he believed to be Kosovo-based associate of the undercover officer, according to officials.

The informant had told Veliu the guns were bound for Mexican drug cartels engaged in a “war” along the border, according to a criminal complaint filed in Brooklyn federal court.

After the first exchange, Veliu, with the help of other co-conspirators, sold 14 AK-47s and an M80 Zolja Anti-tank rocket launcher equipped with a 64mm rocket to multiple individuals, prosecutors say.

“The investigation spanned continents, involved rockets, high-powered firearms and a suspect who was prepared to provide deadly, dangerous weapons to criminals," said Keith M. Corlett, superintendent for New York State Police. "With this sentencing, law enforcement has once again put an end to a violent enterprise, and made our streets safer.”

Veliu was arrested in 2017 along with eight defendants, including two other Staten Islanders -- Alban Veliu, 32, and Agim Rugova, 45.

He pleaded guilty in Brooklyn federal court in February of 2019 to conspiracy to transport a destructive device and machine guns and to money-laundering conspiracy to resolve criminal charges against him, online records show.

The probe unfolded after a confidential informant advised officials that Christopher Curanovic, who was serving a federal prison sentence for racketeering conspiracy, tried to shake him down for the $40,000 he owed Curanovic.

In 2007, the informant, who owned a repair garage in Brooklyn, began paying protection money to the Genovese organized crime family, said the complaint. Eventually, he couldn’t make the payments, and Curanovic paid off the debt for him, according to the complaint.

In 2016, Curanovic sent the man threatening text messages from prison regarding the repayment of the cash he had laid out, said the complaint.

The man told Curanovic he couldn’t repay him; however, as a means of payment, a second informant, along with Veliu and others, arranged to provide Curanovic with a percentage of the proceeds of a drug-trafficking operation that required laundering, according to the complaint.

“Veliu’s illicit business spanned the globe,” said Homeland Security Investigations Special Agent-in-Charge Peter C. Fitzhugh. "By ‘cleaning’ drug money and buying and selling high powered weapons, he was able to create a dangerous and lucrative criminal enterprise.”