AMAURY VILLA, 40, a citizen of Cuba last residing in Miami, Florida, was sentenced today 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 theft of pharmaceuticals from an Eli Lilly Company warehouse and storage facility in Enfield, Conn. Judge Arterton ordered the sentence to run concurrently with a 140-month sentence that VILLA is serving on a related federal conviction.

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

Judge 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.

VILLA previously pleaded guilty in the Southern District of Florida to conspiracy and possession of stolen goods charges and, on November 26, 2012, he was sentenced to 140 months of imprisonment.

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.

This matter 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.

The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Anastasia E. King and Douglas P. Morabito.