DENVER -- A man charged with helping smuggle millions of dollars worth of cocaine from Mexico to the United States has pleaded not guilty in Denver federal court.

Oscar Arriola Marquez is accused of using a remote Colorado ranch to store hundreds of pounds of cocaine to be distributed to large U.S. cities.

He appeared in court Tuesday on charges of conspiracy to distribute a controlled substance, attempted conspiracy to distribute a controlled substance and money laundering.

Arriola Marquez was indicted in 2003 and arrested in Mexico in 2006. He was extradited to Colorado last week.

According to federal court documents, the Drug Enforcement Administration's Colorado Springs office began an investigation in June 2002 that eventually led to the identification of Arriola as the leader of an international cocaine trafficking organization that smuggled and distributed more than 2 tons of cocaine per month in the United States. In addition, the Arriola organization allegedly collected hundreds of millions of dollars in drug proceeds in the United States and transported the cash to Arriola and other leaders of the organization in Mexico, federal officials said in a statement last week.

The Colorado Springs investigation began with an anonymous telephone tip to a Pueblo, Colo., Crime Stoppers tip line regarding a ranch property in Peyton, Colo., that was suspected of being used to store large shipments of cocaine. During a lengthy investigation, agents determined that the Peyton ranch served as a cocaine storage and transportation center for the Arriola organization, federal officials said.

From 2002 through 2004, DEA offices in Colorado Springs, Denver, El Paso, Chicago, New York, Albuquerque, North Carolina and Mexico coordinated investigative efforts against the Arriola organization. Law enforcement officers in the U.S. and Mexico seized more than 5,000 pounds of cocaine, approximately $50 million in cash and other assets, and arrested 60 key members of the Arriola organization in the U.S.

Agents obtained evidence indicating that the organization had extensive U.S. cocaine distribution networks in Texas, Colorado, Illinois, New York, Georgia, Missouri, Arizona, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Maryland, Indiana, Michigan, Kansas, New Jersey, South Carolina, Pennsylvania and North Carolina. The organization allegedly had dozens of drug and money transporters operating almost nonstop, delivering cocaine to the U.S., then collecting the drug proceeds and delivering them to the Arriola organization bosses in Mexico, the indictment said. One money transporter told federal investigators that he alone had collected and transported $43 million in a 12-month period as part of the ring.

Arriola Marquez is being held without bail.

His brother, Miguel, pleaded guilty to drug trafficking and is awaiting sentencing.