GUILTY PLEA ENDS CASE OF THE GREAT MAPLE SYRUP HEIST
• The former hardwood-flooring factory chosen to house Quebec’s strategic maple syrup reserve in 2011 was a far cry from Fort Knox. There was no security camera, no alarm system and security was entrusted to a foreman who lived in an apartment on site.
But to Avik Caron, whose spouse was part owner of the building in Saint-Louisde-Blandford, Que., the barrels unloaded that spring contained liquid gold, and it was not long before he was scheming to steal them.
On Wednesday, Caron pleaded guilty to charges of theft over $5,000 and trafficking in stolen syrup, bringing an end to one of the strangest crime stories in recent Quebec history.
Caron, 43, was considered the brains behind a theft that between July 2011 and July 2012 drained 2,700 tonnes of syrup, worth an estimated $18 million, from the Federation of Quebec Maple Syrup Producers’ stockpile. It was the largest theft ever investigated by Quebec’s provincial police.
A summary of facts submitted by the Crown to the court said that soon after the federation leased the former factory, Caron began asking around for names of blackmarket syrup buyers.
He was put in contact with Richard Vallières, a so-called “barrel roller” known for skirting federation rules to sell syrup. A jury found Vallières, his father Raymond and New Brunswick syrup buyer Étienne St-Pierre guilty of charges related to the syrup heist last November.
As accomplices kept watch outside, the thieves would use a tractor-trailer to load barrels filled with syrup from the 2011 harvest. The barrels were transported to a sugar shack belonging to Raymond Vallières, where they were emptied and filled with lake water before being returned to the warehouse.
When the lake froze over, the syrup-transfer operation moved to a warehouse in Montreal. In the end, the thieves drained the barrels directly at the federation facility, about 150 kilometres northeast of Montreal. In total, 9,571 barrels were emptied, representing 59 per cent of the stockpile the federation maintained to ensure stable prices.
It wasn’t until August 2012 that federation staff grew suspicious when they noticed barrels in the warehouse were dirty and rusty. When the containers were tapped, some sounded emptier than others.
The foreman in charge of security, Sylvain Bourassa, was in on the plot, and he pleaded guilty last month. In total, 17 people have been convicted in connection to the theft.
The Vallières trial last fall heard that the operation had the trappings of a major crime operation, with burner cellphones to avoid detection and cash payments as high as $200,000. Testifying in his defence, Vallières said he had wanted to pull out when he realized the syrup was stolen from the federation but was threatened at gunpoint by Caron. “He said, ‘I know where you live,’ ” Vallières testified.
Crown prosecutor Julien Beauchamp-Laliberté praised the work of Sûreté du Québec investigators in getting to the bottom of the puzzling case. “It was as if you woke up in the morning, went to pour milk from the carton and it’s water. So you call the police and say, ‘Where did my milk go?’ ”
Laliberté acknowledged that many people find the idea of a maple syrup theft comical. “It’s no less serious because it’s not cocaine or gold bricks,” he said, noting that the federation stockpile belongs to the province’s 7,300 syrup producers. “It’s an economic crime, and it affects people who work in the woods and literally give the sweat from their brow.”
Caron’s sentencing hearing is scheduled for Feb. 27. Vallières, his father and StPierre are to be sentenced Jan. 27. Beauchamp-Laliberté said he will seek prison terms of more than two years for all four men.