ST. LOUIS 鈥 The morning after the break-in, Trey Eberhart found his family鈥檚 Jefferson County pharmacy in disarray.
Burglars had thrown a soccer ball-sized rock through the window of the Hillsboro Health Mart, smashed open the narcotics cabinet, dumped out a trash can and used it to carry away bottles of drugs 鈥 including codeine and liquid cough syrup 鈥 out of the building.
Local and federal authorities eventually indicted two men from Ohio for that 2020 burglary and a string of other rural pharmacy break-ins across four states netting more than $100,000 in drugs. Late last month, they were sentenced to prison.
Similar sprees are happening across Missouri and the rest of the nation. Federal law enforcement officials say thieves are increasingly targeting rural, locally owned pharmacies and stripping them of drugs with high resale value on the streets.
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Small, independent businesses are particular targets because they are often in isolated areas and lack the security of larger chains in urban centers. And, aside from adding to the nation鈥檚 drug problem, these thefts financially burden small, rural businesses that to make ends meet.
鈥淚t鈥檚 our livelihood,鈥 Eberhart said. 鈥淚t may be just inventory, but it鈥檚 our money that鈥檚 tied up there. They鈥檙e breaking the law.鈥
The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration couldn鈥檛 put a hard number on such cases, but agency officials say such thefts are increasing. In 2023, there were 900 reported cases.
The trend has played out locally, too. Earlier this year, federal officials charged two men with carrying out burglaries in multiple states. They were eventually caught trying to steal from a pharmacy in Casey, Illinois, according to court documents.
Metro East and Jefferson County authorities have also investigated burglaries at various pharmacy locations throughout the summer.
And last month, federal prosecutors in Arkansas announced indictments for 42 people suspected of being involved with a Texas drug distribution ring. Authorities say they hit pharmacies in 31 states, including Missouri.
鈥淭hese crimes are particularly heinous because they really rip at the core of communities and what those communities depend on,鈥 said Joseph Dixon, an Assistant Special Agent in Charge of the DEA in St. Louis.
Dixon said that the break-ins typically begin with research. Burglars look for locations to hit and learn about their security systems, find out when the stores close, and figure out how many cars use the parking lots, and when.
Many bust through the doors with burglary tools or pry them open. Some smash windows. All are looking for highly addictive drugs like oxycodone, hydrocodone, morphine, Adderall and Xanax.
Once they steal the drugs, Dixon said, they may try to sell them on the street locally or take them back to a larger city to distribute.
In the case of the large indictment in Arkansas, thieves traveled to 31 states where they stole hundreds of thousands of pills with a street value of more than $12 million, court documents say. They brought the narcotics back to Houston, Texas where they sold them.
Authorities connected the break-ins by noticing the burglars used similar tools and methods and wore matching clothing and footwear, according to a news release from federal authorities in Arkansas.
Those types of discoveries are important in almost every case, Dixon said. A member of one burglary ring in Missouri and Illinois, for example, left behind pieces of DNA.
In the case of Hillsboro Health Mart, Eberhart said one of the thieves wasn鈥檛 wearing a mask, allowing authorities to identify him through video.
One of the burglars, Cunningham, 42, and his partner, Tarvin M. Hamler III, 43, hit pharmacies in Carthage, St. James, Hillsboro and Ladue, Missouri, and traveled to McLeansboro and Irvington in south-central Illinois, Indiana and North Carolina to steal oxycodone, hydrocodone and morphine from March 2018 to February 2020.
The men were each sentenced to roughly eight years in prison.
Eberhart said it鈥檚 common for burglars to try to steal medications from pharmacies. He said his parents own three different Health Mart locations in Jefferson County, and each has seen break-ins over the past few years.
Just a couple weeks after Cunningham and Hamler stole from the Hillsboro location, someone else broke into the Health Mart pharmacy in DeSoto. Then, a few years later, another break-in was reported at the Cedar Hill location.
The stolen medications don鈥檛 cost them any money out of pocket, Eberhart said, but they have to raise their insurance coverage for five years after each burglary, substantially increasing costs.
鈥淚t鈥檚 the same with any business,鈥 he said, 鈥測ou鈥檙e going to get broken into.鈥
Still, he said, it鈥檚 important to catch the perpetrators.
Dixon said the DEA has a diversion program to help pharmacies better protect themselves from burglaries. The local office in St. Louis is ready to help conduct assessments to find security vulnerabilities, he said.
鈥淭hese are crimes of opportunity,鈥 he said.