Officials said they believed that the drugs stolen from Enfield had not been sold and had all been recovered in a Florida warehouse.

In many thefts, however, stolen drugs end up in stores, often after being stored in unsafe conditions. Eli Lilly, which was insured for the theft, said the drugs would be destroyed when they were no longer needed as evidence.

According to the indictment, Amaury Villa flew from Miami to La Guardia Airport in January 2010, rented an Infiniti QX56 at the airport and stayed at Hyatt hotels in Jersey City and then Windsor, Conn., north of Hartford and near Enfield. He then returned to Florida. In February, according to the indictment, he was linked to a lease agreement for two tractor-trailers. Twice more in the next two months, he flew to New York or Hartford.

On March 12, 2010, the day before the burglary, two people who were not named in the indictment bought “a particular combination of tools” at a Home Depot in Flushing. That night, Mr. Villa flew from Miami to La Guardia, rented a Cadillac Escalade and drove up to the Hyatt in Windsor.

Starting about 10:30 p.m. March 13, the indictment said, the thieves used the tools that had been purchased at Home Depot to cut a hole in the roof of the warehouse, and lowered themselves with ropes. Over the next five hours, they used a forklift inside the warehouse to load the drugs into a tractor-trailer.

At some point, the authorities said, Amed Villa touched the water bottle. The authorities did not say if he had left behind fingerprints or DNA, but both he and his brother had burglary convictions in Florida and were presumably fingerprinted when they were arrested there.