Three Sentenced for Stealing Drugs from Missouri, Kansas Pharmacies

ST. LOUIS - Three men from Texas have been sentenced for stealing tens of thousands of pain pills and other controlled substances from three pharmacies in Missouri and Kansas last year.

Anthony Ray Venwright, 33, and Jonathan Fore, 30, were sentenced Wednesday to 120 months and 87 months in prison, respectively. Erik Dewayne Lyons Jr., 21, was sentenced last week to 46 months in prison. All three were ordered to pay restitution of $62,708.

The three men traveled from the Houston, Texas area to Lee's Summit, Missouri on July 29, 2025. The next day, Lyons waited in a Toyota RAV4 nearby while Venwright and Fore broke into a pharmacy and stole drugs. They then broke into a pharmacy in Overland Park, Kansas. The following day, they broke into a Maryland Heights pharmacy. Maryland Heights police identified the RAV4 and learned that it was in Arkansas. After the Arkansas State Police stopped the RAV4 and another vehicle, investigators found two trash bags containing the drugs that the men had stolen from the third pharmacy and evidence linking them to all the burglaries.

The men admitted stealing a total of 25,610 doses of pain pills and other controlled substances.

All three men pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in St. Louis to conspiracy to possess with the intent to distribute controlled substance and entering a pharmacy with the intent to steal controlled substances.

The case was investigated by the Maryland Heights Police Department, the Arkansas State Police, the Clark County (Arkansas) Sheriff's Department, the Lee's Summit Police Department and the Overland Park (Kansas) Police Department. Assistant U.S. Attorney Paul D'Agrosa prosecuted the case.