Thieves steal $75 million in drugs
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
By JACK FLYNN
jflynn@repub.com
ENFIELD - There were no painkillers, steroids or even weight-loss pills.

When thieves struck the Eli Lilly & Co. warehouse here Sunday morning, they got a haul of anti-depressant and anti-psychotic drugs large enough to fill a tractor trailer.

Estimated value: $75 million. "Enough Prozac for a lifetime - sweet," said Erik St. Germaine, 18, of Enfield, sitting in the back of a pickup truck Tuesday, about a half mile from the warehouse.

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News of the great Prozac, Zyprexa and Cymbalta heist, believed to be the largest pharmaceutical theft ever, rippled through Enfield as authorities searched for clues and suspects in the burglary.

To accomplish it, thieves scaled a wall at the warehouse, cut a hole in the roof, rappelled inside and disabled the security system to loot a large quantity of prescription drugs, authorities said. No painkillers or other narcotics were stored at the site, the Indianapolis-based company said.

As rain and heavy winds lashed the area, the thieves spent at least an hour loading about 70 pallets of drugs into a vehicle parked at the loading dock, police said.

"It was a well planned, sophisticated crime," said Edward G. Sagebiel, the drug company's director of communications, speaking from his office in Indianapolis. "When you look at it, it's pretty amazing how well planned it was."

To some residents, just the existence of the warehouse - a sprawling brick complex set back off Freshwater Boulevard, with no signs or identifying markings - was a surprise, much less that it was the target of a Mission Impossible-style break-in.

"I didn't hear anything about it, and I'm a pharmacist," said Christine Woznick, of Suffield, shopping with her daughter at Plato's Closet, a used clothing store not far from the warehouse.

By midafternoon, three security trucks were in the warehouse parking lot, and a black limousine was waiting near the front door, its motor running. At the door, an employee told a reporter from The Republican that the company had no information to offer, and then shut the door.

Besides working with local police and the FBI, the company is reviewing security at the site, one of three distribution centers run by the international drug firm, according to Sagebiel.

Another drug company, GlaxoSmithKline, had a warehouse theft in Richmond, Va., last year, and a Best Buy in New Jersey was robbed recently by intruders rappelling in from the ceiling, Sagebiel added.

The supply of Prozac, Cymbalta and other Eli Lilly-manufactured drugs will not be affected by the theft, the company said.

As for the thieves, they probably had a buyer lined up before the heist, possibly one of many Internet pharmacies, said Sagebiel and Woznick, the pharmacist.

"They'll try to sell it fast, but eventually they'll get caught," Woznick said.

Material from The Associated Press was used in this report. Join the conversation Here's what masslive.com users had to say about the theft of drugs from the Eli Lilly warehouse: "Sounds like an inside job considering someone probably had the pass code to the burglar alarm. Cutting the phone line will not disable a burglar alarm considering most modern systems connect via a cellular radio which is usually located in the panel and has a battery backup. In the time that it took to pull this off, if the alarm would have gone off, the police would have been there long before they loaded even $200 worth of drugs. Also, controlled substances are usually kept in a safe or vault." iowacowboy "This is what happens with small town police department. If they only have 5 or 6 officers patrolling per shift you can get away with a lot. If the chief estimates it took the thieves two hours to load a truck, I assume nobody patrols the area often. Think about it: they had all that time to scale walls and fences and not one cop car in the area. Stop sitting in parking lots doing nothing and patrol - that's what you were hired to do." badge21 "Population - 45,212 according to the 2000 census. Maybe not a megalopolis, but hardly a small town." markopolo244 Want to learn more? Visit www.masslive.com/howto to set up an account and post your thoughts

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