Like a chief financial officer at a Denver Tech Center corporation, Marybell Delarosa-Quintana adeptly managed money deals for two Mexican drug cartels with heroin, cocaine and methamphetamine pipelines to Colorado’s streets.

When Raul Estrada-Castillo needed a convenient stash place for heroin and suitcases filled with cash, Delarosa-Quintana leased a plush apartment at the Fairways at Raccoon Creek in Littleton for $1,600 a month, according to Denver U.S. District Court records.

In a business where secrecy is tougher to come by than thick bundles of loot, Delarosa-Quintana — using the alias “Veronica Ramirez” — was an expert money launderer. She leased cars and condos for a platoon of drug soldiers living in Nevada and Colorado. She handled such day-to-day incidentals as buying car insurance and paying for false identifications.

She also socialized with drug kingpins. Delarosa-Quintana’s knowledge was so critical to federal agents from Tepic, Mexico, to San Diego to Las Vegas and to Denver, that she got a great deal this week when she was sentenced to five years in a federal prison. Her fellow conspirators had been getting sentences three times as long.

“I hope you know you are getting a huge break today,” federal Judge William Martinez told the 38-year-old defendant on Tuesday.

Martinez also sentenced Delarosa-Quintana to three years of supervised release after her prison term. As part of a deal, she pleaded guilty in February to conspiring to disguise proceeds of a heroin distribution network. Martinez said if not for her testimony against drug kingpins from the cartels she likely would have gotten 15 years in prison. However, he added that her participation with the government was extensive and “dangerous.”

“What I did was not what I am,” said Delarosa-Quintana, who was wearing a yellow prison jumpsuit stamped with “inmate” at her sentencing hearing.

In many ways, she was not the stereotypical player in vast, sophisticated drug operations that brought millions of dollars in drugs to the United States. Delarosa-Quintana, a wife and mother of three children, had for 17 years been an insurance agent who earned $55,000 annually at a Denver agency.

But Delarosa-Quintana acknowledged that she also was hooked on cocaine and never considered the impact her cartel activities would have on Denver drug addicts and her family. She readily confessed to the judge that she knew she was laundering money for Mexican drug cartels.

According to court records, FBI and Drug Enforcement Administration agents in California and Colorado began in 2013 investigating a huge money laundering operation based in San Diego in which bundles of cash and large quantities of heroin were transported between the U.S. and Mexico by money and drug couriers.

Two Mexican-based drug trafficking organizations headed by Yael Osuna-Navarro and Efren Ruelas-Avila operated mostly out of Denver, court records indicate.

During the federal investigation between March 2014 and February 2015, agents seized 28 pounds of methamphetamine, 24 pounds of cocaine, 21 pounds of marijuana, $2.7 million in cash and nearly $400,000 in other assets from the Osuna-Navarro drug cartel.

FBI and DEA agents set up 95 wiretaps against members of the Ruelas-Avila cartel before seizing 135 pounds of heroin and $300,000. They also learned that more than $2 million in drug proceeds was laundered in Mexico.

Delarosa-Quintana assisted both cartels while she was then employed at All City Wide Insurance, 7059 Pecos St. She used her position at the insurance company to disguise money laundering activities. She set up several bank accounts in her name and deposited large amounts of cash into the accounts, the court records indicate.

The accounts were used to fund day-to-day business operations of the cartels.

Delarosa-Quintana bought cell phones for drug traffickers and paid their phone bills. She wrote checks or obtained money orders for down payments on leased apartments used by drug traffickers. She took money from the accounts to pay monthly rent, utilities and other expenses for the drug dealers. She bought vehicles and paid for titles, registration and insurance. The money was also used to pay for false identification for drug traffickers, the records indicate.

In 2010, she opened two accounts at Wells Fargo and deposited $164,825 of bulk cash drug proceeds into these accounts. She wrote checks and obtained money orders to lease 70 apartments in Colorado and Nevada, supporting a huge drug-trafficking cell. The majority of the names on the leases were false, the court records say.

Delarosa-Quintana received between $200 and $300 for each transaction. All together, Delarosa-Quintana laundered about $281,000 for the drug cartels.