Columbus man sentenced to 6 years for using local grocery score to launder drug money
A local grocery store has been used as a large-scale money-laundering hub, and one of the operators has been sentenced to federal court for conspiring to launder millions of dollars, according to IRS.gov.
From at least 2016 until at least 2021, Alejandro Ventura-Santos, conspired to launder upwards of $9.5 million in drug proceeds.
According to IRS, Ventura-Santos purported to help operate La Tiendita, a small grocery store at 2516 W. Broad St. 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.
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According to court documents and the IRS, “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.”
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.
He will have to personally forfeit the $1 million he obtained from the laundering scheme.
Ventura-Santos was charged federally in August 2023 and pleaded guilty in April 2024.
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