Law enforcement in Arkansas busted a massive pharmaceutical burglary operation taking place across multiple states following a long investigation, indicting 42 individuals in connection with the criminal ring.
Forty-two people were indicted on Thursday, Aug. 29, in Little Rock, Arkansas, in connection to a burglary ring running narcotics across 31 states. According to Eastern District of Arkansas US Attorney Jonathan Ross, the total street value of the stolen pharmaceutical drugs was about $12 million, and the drugs were stolen from 200 different pharmacies across the different states. Twenty of those pharmacies were in the state of Arkansas.
The latest indictment includes 18 previous indictments from the end of last year, which followed the first phase of the investigation. The codename of the investigation was “Operation #Richoffmeds,” and the first 18 suspects were arrested in November 2023 and indicted the following month. In July 2024, the second phase led to 24 additional arrests in Houston on charges related to conspiracy and drug dealing. Most of those defendants appeared in court on Aug. 29, and the rest of them are due to appear sometime in September.
Arkansas law enforcement seized $79,000 in cash during the arrests, along with $510,000 in rare and custom jewelry and 11 firearms. According to Ross, the group used the internet to compile a list of prospective local pharmacies to hit in order to steal the narcotics and sell them on the black market.
The thieves would scout the locations, travel there, bust into the establishment through a window, and then crawl low to the floor to avoid triggering the motion detectors. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) Administrator Anne Milgram said that the ring primarily targeted out-of-the-way rural pharmacies to steal from, in places where they felt there would be less attention and fewer law enforcement resources to pursue the criminals.
The US Attorney said at a press conference that thieves took a variety of pharmaceutical drugs including alprazolam, Adderall, cough syrup containing codeine, Xanax, hydrocodone, and oxycodone. Steven Hofer, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) Special Agent in Charge of the investigation, called the case the “largest” pharmacy burglary ring busted in the history of his organization.