SYRUP HEIST COURT CASE BEGINS.
TROIS- RIVIÈRES, QUE. • When provincial police were asked to investigate the case of the missing maple syrup, they could have been forgiven for not arriving with sirens wailing.
“It can seem a little folkloric to talk about stolen maple syrup,” Crown prosecutor Julien Beauchamp-Laliberté told the jury Thursday as the trial began for four men charged with theft, fraud and trafficking the syrup. “It wasn’t the type of assignment they’re used to having.”
Investigators discovered barrels containing nearly 3,000 tonnes of syrup valued at $18.7 million had gone missing over 12 months in 201112.
This “was the largest theft investigated by the Sûreté du Québec in its history,” Beauchamp-Laliberté said.
Of the accused, Richard Vallières, 38, faces the most serious charges: theft, fraud and trafficking. Étienne StPierre, 73, is charged with fraud and trafficking. Jean Lord, 47, and Raymond Vallières, 62, are charged with possession of stolen syrup.
The prosecutor said the theft and fraud were committed against the provincial syrup-marketing organization, the Federation of Quebec Maple Syrup Producers. The stolen syrup was pumped into a black market that undermines the quotas and prices established by the federation.
“The victims are the 7,500 producers of maple syrup,” he said. “They are people who work the land.”
The prosecutor outlined to the 14-member jury how the crimes were committed.
During the fall of 2011, a truck began appearing at a federation warehouse in StLouis-de-Blandford, Que., and loading up white barrels filled with syrup from that spring’s harvest. The barrels were moved to a sugar shack belonging to Raymond Vallières, where they were emptied and replaced with water from a nearby creek.
When the creek froze over, the syrup-transfer operation moved to a warehouse in Montreal in early 2012. Finally, the thieves drained the barrels directly at the federation warehouse.
In total, 9,571 barrels were surreptitiously emptied. That represented 59 per cent of a stockpile of pasteurized syrup kept by the federation to ensure supply in lean years and to keep prices stable.
It wasn’t until August 2012 that staff noticed something was amiss. Some barrels were dirty even though the warehouse had a clean cement floor. There were signs of rust on them, even though syrup does not oxidize. And when the containers were tapped, some sounded emptier than others.
The federation cracked them open to learn that the prized Quebec syrup had been replaced by water, Beauchamp-Laliberté said.
The brazen theft made international headlines.