Iowa Pharmacist Who Stole Controlled Substances Sentenced
CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa- A licensed pharmacist who created fake patient profiles to steal prescription drugs containing controlled substances was sentenced on April 15, to a three‑year term of probation.
Ryan Paul Etscheid, age 40, from La Salle, Illinois, received the sentence after an October 27, 2025, guilty plea to acquiring a controlled substance by means of misrepresentation, fraud, deception, and subterfuge.
Information from sentencing and public court records showed that on July 9, 2023, Etscheid worked a shift at a pharmacy in Waterloo, Iowa. Etscheid created three fake patient accounts and dispensed prescription drugs containing controlled substances, including oxycodone, under the fraudulent accounts. Etscheid used similar methods to acquire controlled substances while working as a pharmacist in Ottumwa on February 13, 2022, March 10, 2023, and May 23, 2023. On August 20, 2024, Etscheid pled guilty to three counts of acquiring a controlled substance by means of misrepresentation, fraud, deception, and subterfuge in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Iowa in relation to that conduct and subsequently sentenced to three years of probation on December 20, 2024.
Etscheid was sentenced in Cedar Rapids by United States District Court Chief Judge C.J. Williams. Etscheid was sentenced to three years of probation. He was ordered to make $1,177.04 in restitution to the victim pharmacy.
The case was investigated by the Drug Enforcement Administration and prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Kyndra Lundquist.
