Columbus man sentenced to 6 years in prison for conspiring to launder $9.5 million in drug proceeds

COLUMBUS, Ohio - A Columbus man was sentenced in federal court here today to 72 months in prison for conspiring to launder millions of dollars of drug trafficking money through a Columbus grocery store front business.

From at least 2016 until at least 2021, Alejandro Ventura-Santos, 45, conspired to launder upwards of $9.5 million in drug proceeds.

The defendant purported to help operate La Tiendita, a small grocery store in Columbus that actually served as a large-scale money-laundering hub. Drug traffickers would come into the store and drop off large amounts of cash to Ventura-Santos, who would then falsify sender names and addresses and wire the drug money to dealers in structured amounts.

According to court documents, Ventura-Santos wired the money to drug trafficking organizations in Mexico in aid of their drug trafficking in central Ohio. The defendant structured the amount and timing of transactions to avoid reporting requirements and detection.

As one example, Ventura-Santos accepted $9,900 from undercover agents who said they were heroin dealers. The defendant kept a 10 percent commission from the undercover agents and wired the money to the provided recipient names.

In total, Ventura-Santos personally obtained at least $1 million, which he will forfeit.

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

Kenneth L. Parker, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Ohio; Karen Wingerd, Special Agent in Charge, Internal Revenue Service-Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI), Cincinnati Field Office; Dublin Police Chief Justin Paez; Angie Salazar, Special Agent in Charge, Homeland Security Investigations Detroit; Columbus Police Chief Elaine Bryant and officials with the Ohio HIDTA (High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area) and Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost's Ohio Organized Crime Commission announced the sentence imposed today by U.S. District Court Judge Algenon L. Marbley. Assistant United States Attorneys S. Courter Shimeall and Timothy Prichard are representing the United States in this case.

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