Maple syrup trial hears of cash, burner phones
THEY WERE AFTER ME BECAUSE I BUY A LOT … THEY WANT MORE CONTROL OVER THE SYRUP.
TROIS-RIVIÈRES, QUE • Featuring burner phones and $200,000 in cash stashed in a shoebox, the plot to steal syrup from the Federation of Quebec Maple Syrup Producers had the trappings of a major drug deal.
But the thieves considered themselves more Robin Hoods than gangsters, so deeply did they despise the quota-setting federation, the trial of the four accused heard Tuesday.
Sébastien Jutras, a trucker who served eight months in prison for his involvement, testified in 2011-12 he regularly hauled stolen syrup from a federation warehouse to sites operated by Richard Vallières, whom the Crown alleges was a central player in the $18.7-million theft.
After one delivery, Richard’s father, Raymond Vallières — charged with possessing stolen syrup for the purpose of trafficking — offered his opinion of the federation and the syrup being drained from its reserves.
“He said, ‘Stealing from thieves is not stealing,’ ” Jutras testified.
Resentment of the federation is a strong current running through the trial.
In a 2014 police interview played for jurors, Richard Vallières said he had been buying and selling on Quebec’s maple syrup black market for 10 years and had runins with the federation.
“They were after me because I buy a lot … They want more control over the syrup,” he said. The federation sets prices and production quotas and prosecutes producers found to be selling outside its supply management system.
When Richard Vallières was introduced in 2011 to a seller offering pure syrup at an attractive price, he soon grew suspicious. It had been a lean year in the maple bush, and yet this seller — whose identity is protected because he goes on trial next year — had an inexhaustible supply.
“I asked him, ‘Listen, are you working for the federation, for Christ’s sake?’ ” he told police.
The seller told him not to worry and to stop asking questions. “‘Mind your own business,’ he told me. ‘You want syrup, then that’s it. You have it.’ ”
Jutras testified he introduced Vallières to the seller in 2011 in a meeting at a truck stop. Soon Jutras was making weekly runs to the federation warehouse in StLouis-de-Blandford, filling his tractor-trailer with barrels of syrup and delivering it to Vallières. The barrels were drained, pumped full of water and returned to the warehouse.
“We knew these barrels were coming from the federation,” Jutras said of his discussions at the time with Vallières. “But we didn’t use the word theft.”
Jutras said the stolen syrup was boiled to prevent fermentation, placed in clean barrels and shipped to buyers in the United States, Ontario and New Brunswick.
Shipments from the federation warehouse were arranged over prepaid cellphones provided by the buyer, which were regularly replaced, he said. They came with a directory of stored phone numbers that were not identified by the person’s name, only by a letter.
The trial has heard over 12 months, nearly 3,000 tonnes of syrup, about 60 per cent of the federation’s inventory, were stolen. Police found just 450 tonnes, most of which had to be destroyed because it was no longer fit for consumption.
It was a lucrative business while it lasted. Jutras said he twice collected money from buyers for Vallières. One time it was a shoebox stuffed with cash. “There had to be $200,000.” The other time it was a “brick” of $100 bills in a plastic bag he figured totalled $100,000. He made more than $500,000 before the scheme was broken up.
In March 2012, as the maple sap ran, Jutras, Vallières and three other alleged accomplices took a break.
Six months later, the TV news reported the federation had discovered it was the victim of a major theft. Jutras testified Richard Vallières had a succinct response: “The party’s over.”