Suspect Nabbed for 8 Million Dollar East Peoria Theft

  Police believe they may have solved a two year old, 8 million dollar cigarette heist from East Peoria with the arrest Thursday in Miami of 46 year old Amed Villa. Villa, a citizen of Cuba living in Miami, is accused of stealing more than 3500 cases of cigarettes from the Federal Warehouse in East Peoria. Villa and his brother, Amaury, are also being held by federal authorities for their alleged participation in the theft of nearly 80 million dollars in pharmaceuticals from Connecticut in March 2010, just two months after the East Peoria crime. A federal judge will decide within two weeks whether Amed Villa can be brought back to Peoria to face a federal theft charge here for the East Peoria warehouse crime.