Miami man pleads guilty to $90M Lilly drug heist

A man accused in the theft of about $90 million in prescription drugs from a warehouse, believed to be the largest theft in Connecticut history, pleaded guilty on Monday.

Thieves broke into the Enfield warehouse of Indianapolis-based pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly and Co. in 2010 by scaling an exterior wall and cutting a hole in the roof. They lowered themselves to the floor and disabled alarms before using a forklift to load pallets of drugs into a getaway vehicle.

Amed Villa, a Cuban citizen who lived in Miami, pleaded guilty to federal theft and conspiracy charges stemming from his participation in the theft, the U.S. attorney's office said.

The stolen drugs, which included antidepressants, antipsychotics and a chemotherapy drug used to treat lung cancer, were recovered last year from a storage facility in Florida, authorities said. Villa touched a water bottle that had been stored within the warehouse and left the bottle inside the warehouse when he fled, prosecutors said.

Villa, whose sentencing date has not been set, faces up to 25 years in prison, prosecutors said.

Villa and his brother Amaury Villa, also a Cuban citizen who had been living in Miami, were arrested last year in Florida on theft and conspiracy charges alleging they participated in the theft.

Amed Villa also pleaded guilty to a theft charge related to about $8 million worth of cigarettes from a warehouse in Illinois in 2010. He plans to plead guilty to warehouse theft charges in Kentucky, Virginia and Florida, said his attorney, Jonathan J. Einhorn.

Einhorn said he preferred to have Villa sentenced for all the cases in Connecticut rather than face different judges in different states.

Acting U.S. Attorney Deirdre Daly said: "The Eli Lilly theft is reportedly the largest in Connecticut history, and I commend the FBI in New Haven and the Enfield Police Department, as well as our counterparts in the Central District of Illinois and other jurisdictions, for their cooperative investigative efforts in dismantling a prolific cargo theft ring."

Amaury Villa has pleaded not guilty in Connecticut. He pleaded guilty in Florida last year to possessing drugs stolen from the warehouse and was sentenced to more than 11 years in prison.

His attorney, Maria Elena Perez, who did not represent him in the Florida case, has said she's appealing the sentence and other issues in that case.

Lilly's products include Cymbalta and Cialis.