Date: 08-31-2016

Case Style: United States of America v. Amuary Villa

Case Number: 4:13-cr-00033-JHM

Judge: Joseph H. McKinley

Court: United States District Court for the Western District of Kentucky (Jefferson County)

Plaintiff's Attorney: Joshua D. Judd

Defendant's Attorney: Donald J. Meier

Description: Owensboro, KY - Miami Resident Sentenced To 77 Months In Prison For Participating In A Conspiracy To Burglarize A Kentucky Cigarette Warehouse

Ordered to pay $1,486,164.45 in restitution for theft of cigarettes from Leitchfield, Kentucky warehouse

A Miami resident from Cuba, was sentenced to 77 months in prison and ordered to pay restitution of $1,486,164.45 - for conspiracy and theft charges stemming from the defendant’s participation in a warehouse burglary in Leitchfield, Kentucky.

Amuary Villa, 41, admitted to his role in stealing nearly $1.5 million in cigarettes from the Coremark Cigarette Warehouse in Leitchfield, Kentucky, in March 2011, and that he and others possessed the stolen cigarettes (which constitute an interstate and foreign shipment of property valued at over $1,000) with the intent to convert the property to their own use.

During the theft, Villa and his co-conspirators gained entry into the warehouse through the roof, disabled the alarm system, and loaded the stolen goods into a stolen tractor trailer. Specifically, between March 18, 2011, to March 20, 2011, defendant Camilo Rodriguez-Hernandez allegedly rented three hotel rooms in Elizabethtown, Kentucky, where the co-conspirators, who traveled to Kentucky from Miami, Florida, resided during the burglary and theft. Between March 19, 2011, and March 20, 2011, Amuary Villa, Ivan Romero (a/k/a El Negro), Amed Villa (charged separately), and other co-conspirators unloaded a stolen tractor trailer and loaded it with cigarettes. Defendant Romero admitted to providing transportation for the stolen cigarettes and driving them to the New Jersey/New York area. Defendant Villa admitted to “casing” the warehouse location, cutting a hole in the warehouse roof, then entering the warehouse and disabling the alarm system.

Amuary Villa will serve the 77 month prison term consecutive to a 140 month sentence from the Southern District of Florida and the District of Connecticut, for his role in the theft of approximately $90 million in pharmaceuticals from the Eli Lilly Company warehouse and storage facility in Enfield, Connecticut.

Romero, also a legal permanent resident from Cuba who last resided in Miami, will finish serving a six-year state sentence from Florida, before being transferred to federal custody to serve 57 months. Ahmed Villa, the defendant’s brother, pleaded guilty in the District of Connecticut to charges stemming from the $90 million in pharmaceuticals stolen from the Eli Lilly Company warehouse and storage facility in Enfield, Conn., and several other warehouse thefts including the Coremark Cigarette Warehouse in Leitchfield. Co-defendant Camillo Rodriguez Hernandez has a trial pending in the Western District of Kentucky. Restitution will be paid to Coremark and the insurance company for Coremark.

This case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Joshua Judd and the investigation of the Kentucky theft is being led by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) with assistance from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), Leitchfield and Elizabethtown Police Departments, and New Jersey and Kentucky State Police Departments.

Outcome: Defendant was sentenced to serve 77 month prison term consecutive to a 140 month sentence from the Southern District of Florida and the District of Connecticut.

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