US law enforcement has arrested a New Jersey man and searched stashes of laptops in 16 states in a sweeping crackdown on North Korean efforts to use remote tech workers to covertly fund their weapons programs,

The U.S. Department of Justice and FBI on Monday announced an arrest and indictments targeting North Korea’s so-called “IT worker” program, where North Koreans obtain remote IT-related positions at more than 100 U.

The Justice Department has announced criminal charges in connection with a scheme by North Korea to fund its weapons program through the salaries of remote information technology employed unwittingly by U.