Columbus man sentenced to six years in prison for laundering drug money at a grocery store

COLUMBUS, Ohio – A Columbus man, Alejandro Ventura-Santos, 45, was sentenced to six years in federal prison for laundering millions of dollars in drug money from a convenience store in Columbus. From 2016 to 2021, Ventura-Santos conspired to launder approximately $9.5 million in drug trafficking proceeds.

Ventura-Santos helped run La Tiendita, a grocery store that served as a front for large-scale money laundering operations. Drug traffickers would supply large amounts of cash to the business, and Ventura-Santos would forge the senders' names and addresses and transfer the money in structured amounts to avoid detection. These funds were sent to drug trafficking organizations in Mexico to support their drug operations in central Ohio.

Court documents show Ventura-Santos accepted $9,900 from undercover agents posing as heroin dealers and withheld a 10 percent commission before the money was transferred to a recipient. In total, he personally benefited from the money laundering program at least one million US dollars, which he will now forfeit.

Ventura-Santos was charged in August 2023 and pleaded guilty in April 2024.