From the U.S. Attorney’s Office-Eastern District of Missouri
Three men from Texas have admitted stealing controlled substances from three pharmacies in Missouri and Kansas last year.
Erik Dewayne Lyons Jr., 21, pleaded guilty Thursday 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. Jonathan Fore, 30, and Anthony Ray Venwright, 33, pleaded guilty on March 30 to the same charges.
All three admitted traveling from the Houston, Texas area to Lee’s Summit, Missouri, on July 29, 2025, in a rental vehicle. The next day, Lyons waited in the rented Toyota RAV4 nearby while Venwright and Fore broke into a pharmacy and stole drugs. They then broke into a pharmacy in Overland Park, Kansas. On July 31, 2025, they broke into a Maryland Heights pharmacy. Maryland Heights police identified the RAV4 and learned that it was in Arkansas.
The Arkansas State Police then stopped the RAV4 and a companion vehicle, and investigators later found two trash bags containing the drugs that the men had stolen from the third pharmacy and evidence linking them to all of the burglaries.
The men admitted stealing a total of 25,610 doses of various pain pills and other controlled substances.
Lyons is scheduled to be sentenced July 13. Both Fore and Venwright are scheduled to be sentenced on July 6. Each count is punishable by up to 20 years in prison.
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 is prosecuting the case.
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