Jan.25, 2010, 10:49 PM

A 38-year New Milford woman and Danbury business owner became the fifth and final defendant to be sentenced as part of a federal investigation into an illegal money transfer operation.

Renata Amaral, co-owner of RM Insurance Services LLC, was sentenced to six months in prison and three years supervised release by Judge Janet Hall in U.S. District Court in Bridgeport on Monday.

Prosecutors said Amaral and her co-defendant, Monica Teixeira, illegally transferred about $9.5 million to banks in Brazil and in other states in the United States between March 2006 and March 2008.

Among the transfers, investigators said, was money purported to be profits from a marijuana-trafficking operation.

The drug ring never existed, but was part of an undercover law enforcement operation directed at the money transfer operation, which catered to the Brazilian community, authorities have said.

Teixeira previously pleaded guilty to operating an illegal money-remitting business. She was sentenced last April to a year and a day in federal prison and fined $2,000.