TAMPA — After Carlos Beltran denied to The Post last year he was even aware of a center-field camera — let alone illegal sign-stealing — in Houston in 2017, a new report has emerged claiming that Beltran not only knew of the illegal scheme, but was a key figure in orchestrating and maintaining it throughout the season.

According to a report Tuesday in The Athletic, Beltran was the ringleader when it came to the scheme and ignored the protests of some coaches and teammates.

Beltran joined the Astros before the 2017 season after spending the previous three years with the Yankees. According to The Athletic, when Beltran got to Houston, he told the organization its sign-stealing methods were “behind the times.”

And even when other players — including former Yankees teammate Brian McCann — advised Beltran to put a stop to the cheating, Beltran refused, the report claims.

“He disregarded it and steamrolled everybody,” one of the team members alleged. “Where do you go if you’re a young, impressionable player with the Astros and this guy says, ‘We’re doing this’? What do you do?”

It’s a far cry from what Beltran told The Post in November, when he said, “I’m not concerned. There’s nothing illegal about studying your opposite team. We all have the same opportunity to look out for information and tendencies.”

It looks like Beltran, in the final season of a 20-year career that looked to have him on his way to Cooperstown, was very much involved.

“As a veteran player on the team I should’ve recognized the severity of the issue and truly regret the actions that were taken,’’ Beltran said in a statement after he lost the Mets managerial job last month without setting foot in the dugout.

Earlier, Beltran had told The Post via text message, “I’m not aware of that camera. We were studying the opposite team every day.”

The MLB probe found that in 2017, the Astros used a camera in center field and were able to figure out signals and relay them to hitters in real time by banging on a trash can near the dugout.

Hinch, then in his third season as manager of the Astros, twice made his displeasure known about the cheating by destroying the monitor, but never told his players to stop doing it, according to a previous Athletic report.

Beltran was a powerful figure in the Astros’ clubhouse. Members of the 2017 team described Beltran to The Athletic as “the Godfather,” “El Jefe [the boss],” “the king” and the “alpha male.”

In an interview with MLB Network last week, Hinch claimed he feared losing the team if he went too far in showing his disapproval of the illegal strategy. Hinch said “it’s complicated when you’re talking about a team and all the inner workings of a team,’’ but he didn’t get into specifics in the interview.

Beltran — along with Alex Cora, who was fired as manager of the Red Sox for his role in the scheme as Houston’s bench coach — worked together to speed up the sign-stealing process.

As The Wall Street Journal reported, Houston’s front office developed an algorithm that decoded signs from video — a practice that is not prohibited if it’s not used during live game action.

But the player-driven system that MLB found the Astros guilty of was the result of Beltran and Cora having someone install a monitor that allowed them to use the trash can system in real time.

After MLB sent out a memo in September 2017 following the Apple Watch controversy involving the Red Sox and Yankees that warned of severe penalties if electronics were used from that point on, the Astros continued their sign-stealing strategy.

“I was in my first year, man,” former Astros and current Pirates pitcher Joe Musgrove said on MLB Network last month. “Along with [Alex] Bregman and a lot of those guys, and in your first year in the big leagues you’re around guys like Beltran and McCann, some big names. And I’m not going to be the pitcher to walk up and tell them to knock it off.”

During the 2017 and 2018 seasons, MLB more clearly prohibited the use of electronics to steal signs.

After Beltran retired following the 2017 season, he joined the Yankees as a special advisor to general manager Brian Cashman.

He was then named manager of the Mets, taking over for the fired Mickey Callaway, but the Mets moved on from Beltran after he was the only player named in MLB’s investigation that led to the firing of Hinch and general manager Jeff Luhnow.

Beltran was replaced by the Mets with Luis Rojas. The Post’s Joel Sherman reported one of the reasons the Mets moved on from Beltran was the fear of new details like these emerging and putting them in the middle of a controversy they had nothing to do with.