COLUMBUS, Ohio — A Columbus man, Alejandro Ventura-Santos, 45, has been sentenced to six years in federal prison for his role in laundering millions of dollars in drug money through a small grocery 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 was used as a front for large-scale money laundering operations. Drug traffickers would deliver large amounts of cash to the store, and Ventura-Santos would falsify the names and addresses of senders, wiring the money in structured amounts to avoid detection. These funds were sent to drug trafficking organizations in Mexico, supporting their drug operations in central Ohio.
Court documents reveal that Ventura-Santos accepted $9,900 from undercover agents posing as heroin dealers, keeping a 10 percent commission before wiring the funds to a recipient. In total, he personally profited by at least $1 million from the laundering scheme, which he will now forfeit.
Ventura-Santos was charged in August 2023 and pleaded guilty in April 2024.