ST. LOUIS — Three men from Texas have been sentenced to federal prison after admitting they stole over 25,000 doses of pain medication and other drugs in a series of pharmacy burglaries in Missouri and Kansas last year.

33-year-old Anthony Ray Venwright was given 10 years in prison, 30-year-old Jonathan Fore got just over 7 years, and 21-year-old Erik Dewayne Lyons Jr. was sentenced to just under 4 years (46 months). The courts have also ordered the men to pay back $62,708 in restitution.

According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Missouri, the trio went from the Houston area to Lee’s Summit, Missouri, on July 29, 2025. The next day, prosecutors said Lyons waited nearby in a car (RAV4) while Venwright and Fore broke into a pharmacy and stole various pain meds. The group then stole from another pharmacy in Overland Park, Kansas.

The day after that, the men broke into a third pharmacy in Maryland Heights, Missouri. Investigators with the Maryland Heights Police Department identified the RAV4 and determined it had gone to Arkansas. Authorities there stopped the SUV and another car, recovering two trash bags containing drugs taken from the Maryland Heights pharmacy, along with other evidence that linked the men to all three burglaries.

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According to prosecutors, the group stole a total of 25,610 doses of pain medication and other controlled substances.

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

The investigation was conducted by the Maryland Heights Police Department, Arkansas State Police, the Clark County Sheriff’s Department in Arkansas, the Lee’s Summit Police Department, and the Overland Park Police Department.

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