Eli Lilly Warehouse Thief Admits Participating in Additional Multi-Million-Dollar Burglaries
| U.S. Attorney’s Office September 09, 2013 |
NEW HAVEN, CT—The United States Attorney’s Offices for the District of Connecticut, Eastern District of Virginia, Middle District of Florida, and Western District of Kentucky announced that Amed Villa pleaded guilty today before U.S. Magistrate Judge Joan G. Margolis in New Haven to federal conspiracy and theft charges stemming from his participation in warehouse burglaries in Virginia, Florida, and Kentucky. On July 1, 2013, Villa pleaded guilty in the District of Connecticut to charges stemming from the theft of approximately $90 million in pharmaceuticals from the Eli Lilly Company warehouse and storage facility in Enfield, Connecticut, in March 2010, and more than $8 million in cigarettes and a cargo trailer from a warehouse in East Peoria, Illinois, in January 2010.
In pleading guilty to the additional charges, Villa, 49, admitted that he and others stole more than $13.3 million in pharmaceuticals from the GlaxoSmithKline warehouse in Colonial Heights, Virginia, in August 2009; approximately $7.8 million in cellular telephones and multimedia tablets from the Quality One Wireless warehouse in Orlando, Florida; in January 2011, and more than $1.5 million in cigarettes from the Coremark Cigarette Warehouse in Leitchfield, Kentucky, in March 2011.
Villa was charged with the additional thefts in the Eastern District of Virginia, Middle District of Florida, and Western District of Kentucky, respectively, and the cases were transferred to the District of Connecticut for further prosecution.
During each of the thefts, Villa and his co-conspirators gained entry into the warehouse through the roof, disabled the alarm system, and loaded the stolen goods into tractor trailers.
Villa’s DNA was identified on items discarded during the thefts in Connecticut, Illinois, Florida, and Virginia.
To date, Villa has pleaded guilty to two counts of conspiracy to commit theft from an interstate shipment and five counts of theft from an interstate shipment. He is scheduled to be sentenced by U.S. District Judge Janet Bond Arterton in New Haven on December 4, 2013, at which time he faces a maximum term of imprisonment of five years on each of the conspiracy counts and a maximum term of imprisonment of 10 years on each of the theft counts.
Villa, a citizen of Cuba who last resided in Miami, has been detained since his arrest on May 3, 2012. The investigation of the Connecticut warehouse theft is being led by the FBI in New Haven and the Enfield Police Department; the investigation of the Illinois theft is being led by ATF and the East Peoria Police Department; the investigation of the Virginia theft is being led by the FBI; the investigation of the Florida theft is being led by the FBI and the Orlando Police Department; and the investigation of the Kentucky theft is being led by ATF.
This case is being prosecuted in the District of Connecticut by Assistant U.S. Attorney Anastasia E. King, with the assistance of Assistant U.S. Attorney K. Tate Chambers of the Central District of Illinois, Assistant U.S. Attorney Jessica Aber of the Eastern District of Virginia, Assistant U.S. Attorney Christopher LaForgia of the Middle District of Florida, and Assistant U.S. Attorney Joshua Judd of the Western District of Kentucky.