Thieves take $75 million in medications

HARTFORD, Conn. – In a Hollywood-style heist, thieves cut a hole in the roof of a warehouse, rappelled inside and scored one of the biggest hauls of its kind – not diamonds, gold bullion or Old World art, but about $75 million in antidepressants and other prescription drugs.

The pills – stolen from the pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly & Co. in quantities big enough to fill a tractor-trailer – are believed to be destined for the black market, perhaps overseas.

“This is like the Brink’s pill heist,” said Erik Gordon, a University of Michigan business professor who studies the health care industry. “This one will enter the folklore.”

The thieves apparently scaled the brick exterior of the warehouse in an industrial park in Enfield, a town about midway between Hartford and Springfield, Mass., during a blustery rainstorm before daybreak Sunday. After lowering themselves to the floor, they disabled the alarms and spent at least an hour loading pallets of drugs into a vehicle at the loading dock, authorities said.

Experts described it as one of the biggest pharmaceutical heists in history.

Edward Sagebiel, a spokesman for Indianapolis-based Eli Lilly, put the wholesale value of the drugs at $75 million and said they included the antidepressants Prozac and Cymbalta and the anti-psychotic Zyprexa. No narcotics or other painkillers were in the warehouse, he said.

The thieves could easily net $20 million to $25 million, Gordon said.