By DUSTIN RACIOPPI

Authorities have confirmed that Thursday’s “police operation” in the area of the Upper Navesink River in Red Bank was part of an on-going investigation for a Bank Street woman who went missing last week.

The Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office said it had launched an investigation, along with Red Bank and Eatontown police, into the whereabouts of 26-year-old Viridiana Beltran-Gomez, right.

Beltran-Gomez was last seen leaving her job at Siena Grill on Shrewsbury Avenue on Thursday, May 12. She is believed to have last been with her estranged husband, Oscar Enrique Prior-Ramirez, left, of Eatontown, the Prosecutor’s Office said in a release. She was reported missing to Red Bank police the following day.

Relatives describe Beltran-Gomez as a fair-skinned Latina, about five-feet-two-inches tall and weighing 115 pounds with dyed blonde hair and hazel eyes.

Prior-Ramirez was last known driving a tan 1999 Jeep Grand Cherokee Limited, the Prosecutor’s Office said.

The office’s confirmation of the search comes nearly 30 hours fter authorities launched what at the time they classified only as a “police operation” at the foot of River Street, using a boat, search dog and helicopter that traveled up and down the Swimming River and Navesink River area.