A Brazilian national living illegally in Worcester is set to appear in federal court on criminal charges that he conspired to smuggle hundreds of aliens from his native country to Boston and other U.S. cities.

Flavio Alexandre Alves, 41, is scheduled to appear in Worcester federal court Friday morning after authorities arrested him on Wednesday as part of a law enforcement operation “targeting a transnational criminal organization” accused of the “illicit smuggling” of hundreds of Brazilians to the U.S.

He made an initial appearance Wednesday and is being detained.

Alves had been deported to Brazil in February 2005 after being previously convicted of human smuggling offenses in California, but he allegedly reentered the U.S. sometime after and has been living here illegally, according to charging documents.

Investigators identified Alves as an alleged “domestic-based smuggler” for a human smuggling organization operating in the U.S., Brazil and Mexico that is said to smuggle Brazilian nationals across the southern border for “financial gain and laundering the proceeds.”

An investigation into the organization began in April 2022, months after Alves joined it in the middle of 2021 and started to coordinate with “co-conspirators in Brazil and Mexico to facilitate the transportation of aliens from Brazil into the United States,” charging documents indicate.

Homeland Security Investigations, within the Department of Homeland Security, also detained four other individuals across the country on Wednesday for their alleged roles with the smuggling organization on administrative immigration violations, according to Massachusetts U.S. Attorney Leah Foley.

Alves allegedly purchased more than 100 individual airline tickets for Brazilian aliens, including those in families and other groups, to fly out of Tucson or Phoenix after Customs and Border Protection encountered and released them from detention, a release states.

The aliens whom Alves helped fly out of Arizona were directed to destination cities including Boston and others in Pennsylvania; Pittsburgh, Harrisburg and Philadelphia, Foley’s office said.

The office added that Alves allegedly “sent hundreds of thousands of dollars in money transfers to facilitate the travel of aliens who were later encountered by immigration authorities illegally crossing into the United States, and paid smugglers in Mexico.”

To hide the “nature and frequency” of the transfers, Alves sent money out at “various locations” across the Bay State, including a Walmart in Worcester, Leominster, and Oxford, according to photographs included in an affidavit and the charging document.

Alves also provided “different variations of his name and home address; and having other close associates conduct the transactions on his behalf,” Foley’s office said.