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MONTREAL — A sophisticated money laundering ring with international tentacles was behind hundreds of millions of dollars in transactions until it was dismantled this week, federal authorities said Tuesday.

The RCMP told a news conference its probe — dubbed “Collector” — uncovered a network with cells in Montreal and Toronto that collected and laundered money primarily from Montreal criminal groups.

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“We believe with the amounts we saw being transited through the network we just dismantled, this network was occupying a primary place in the money laundering world in Montreal,” Sgt. Francois-Olivier Myette said.

Police did not look further into organized criminal groups that allegedly used the group’s services — there were at least six — but investigators have no doubt they played a big role in cleaning dirty money.

“These cells might have different links to different organized crime groups, but it wasn’t the main focus (of our investigation),” Myette said. “We were really focusing on the money laundering aspect of it, although it was necessary to find drugs to demonstrate the money was derived from sales of narcotics and proceeds of crime.”