Suspect in Enfield Drug Warehouse Heist Is Sentenced to 8+ Years in Prison

A Cuban national has been sentenced to more than eight years in prison for his role in the 2010 theft of pharmaceuticals from the Eli Lilly Company warehouse and storage facility in Enfield, and ordered to pay more than $60 million in restitution.

Amaury Villa, 40, a citizen of Cuba last residing in Miami, FL, was sentenced Friday by U.S. District Judge Janet Bond Arterton in New Haven to 98 months of imprisonment, followed by three years of supervised release, for his role in the 2010 theft of pharmaceuticals from the Eli Lilly Company warehouse and storage facility in Enfield. Arterton ordered the sentence to run concurrently with the 140-month sentence that Villa is serving after he pleaded guilty in the Southern District of Florida to conspiracy and possession of stolen goods charges and, on Nov. 26, 2012.

According to court documents and statements made in court, in early 2010, Amaury Villa, Amed Villa, Yosmany Nunez and Alexander Marquez planned to steal pharmaceuticals from the Eli Lilly Company warehouse and storage facility in Enfield. Prior to the theft, Amaury Villa and Nunez traveled from Florida to Connecticut to gather information about the warehouse facility and the surrounding area. Shortly before the theft, Amed Villa and Rafael Lopez traveled to Flushing, NY, where they purchased tools needed to break into the warehouse facility, and then traveled to Connecticut.

In the evening of March 13, 2010, individuals involved in the theft dropped off a ladder in the rear parking lot of the warehouse facility and left. That same night, Marquez drove a tractor trailer to the facility. Thereafter, Amaury Villa and Amed Villa carried the ladder to the building, checked for security in the front area, climbed onto the roof, used the tools Amed Villa and Lopez had purchased to cut a hole in the facility roof, dropped down into the facility and disabled the alarm system. Amaury Villa, Amed Villa and Nunez then loaded more than 40 pallets of pharmaceuticals into the tractor trailer, which had been backed up to the loading dock of the warehouse.

The pallets of pharmaceuticals included thousands of boxes Zyprexa, Cymbalta, Prozac, Gemzar and other medicines, valued between $50 and $100 million.

The individuals who participated in the theft split up in Connecticut. Marquez then drove the tractor trailer to Florida, where he subsequently reunited with Amaury Villa, Amed Villa and Nunez so the pharmaceuticals could be transferred from the tractor trailer into self-storage units in the Miami area.

On Oct. 14, 2011, law enforcement authorities searched a storage facility in Florida and recovered pharmaceuticals that had been stolen from the Enfield warehouse.

Arterton ordered Villa to pay restitution in the amount of $60,994,213.

Villa has been detained since his arrest on May 3, 2012. On May 2, 2014, he pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy, four counts of theft from an interstate shipment, and one count of interstate transportation of stolen property.

Amed Villa pleaded guilty in the District of Connecticut to conspiracy and theft charges related to the Enfield theft and his participation in multimillion dollar warehouse burglaries in Illinois, Virginia, Florida and Kentucky. He awaits sentencing.

Nunez, Marquez and Lopez pleaded guilty in the District of Connecticut and have been sentenced.

The case is being investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Enfield Police Department, with the assistance of several other U.S. Attorney’s Offices and federal, state and local law enforcement agencies that have been investigating large-scale thefts of pharmaceuticals and other products, and is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Anastasia E. King and Douglas P. Morabito.

To sign up for Enfield news alerts and more, click here.

Other Patch stories:

• Enfield Woman, Juveniles Charged With Robbery, Assault of Another Juvenile
• On the Enfield Market: A Remodeled Home on Crescent Lake
• Report: Former Enfield Cop No Longer Has Terminated Status