COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) -- A Columbus man was sentenced to six years in prison for using a grocery store as a front to launder drug trafficking money, from which he made at least $1 million. Alejandro Ventura-Santos, 45, received a 72-month sentence in federal court Friday. He was charged federally in August 2023 and pleaded guilty in April 2024 to conspiring to launder upwards of $9.5 million in drug money. Columbus police share test results on rug from viral TikTok investigation His scheme -- which prosecutors said went from at least 2016 until at least 2021 -- involved La Tiendita, a small grocery store in the Highland West neighborhood that he used as a money-laundering hub. Drug traffickers would come into the store and leave Ventrua-Santos with large amounts of cash. Then, he would falsify sender names and addresses, wiring the drug money to dealers in structured amounts. Court documents showed that Ventura-Santos wired the money to Mexican drug trafficking groups to aid their operations in central Ohio. At one point, he accepted $9,900 from undercover agents claiming to be heroin dealers. He kept a 10% commission from the undercover agents and wired the rest of the money to its intended recipients. Ventura-Santos will also be required to forfeit the $1 million he received personally from the scheme.