DECEPTION: The Great Canadian Syrup Heist

Hi, everyone. Before today's episode, we want to tell you about What the Fact. It's a new show from Conor Tomlinson, you know, from Netflix's Love on the Spectrum, and Carter Roy from Murder, True Crime Stories. Every week, they take three unbelievable true facts from history and tell you the full story behind them. Conor's infectious energy will make you realize history is the most fascinating thing on Earth. Follow What the Fact wherever you listen or subscribe on YouTube at What the Fact Pod. This is Crime House. They thought it was the perfect crime, involving forklifts, fake barrels, and more maple syrup than you could ever imagine. A plan so clever, it couldn't possibly fail. Until it did, spectacularly. Welcome to Crimes of Deception. I'm Sabrina DeAnaroga. I'm Jennifer. I'm Corinne Vian. And this season, we are diving into stories where ambition, ego, and a little bit of delusion turn everyday schemes into headline-making crimes, and also some of the most ridiculous crimes ever committed. Subscribe now and step inside the world of Crimes Of. The case of the maple syrup heist starts now. Welcome to Crimes Of Deception, a Crime House original powered by Pave Studios, we are your hosts, Sabrina DeAnaroga and Corinne Vian. Every Tuesday, we're exploring a different corner of the true crime universe, examining cases that left a permanent impact on society. This season, we're stepping into some of the boldest and most unbelievable crimes ever committed. The kinds of crimes where reality is stranger than fiction. If you're loving Crimes Of, please follow, rate, and review us wherever you listen. It helps us build this community, and we love hearing from you. To get early access and ad-free, subscribe to the Crime House Plus community on Apple Podcasts. And you can also catch us on YouTube, where we include visuals that bring every case to life. Today, we're heading to Canada to cover a case that has truly stuck in our collective memory. Sticky stuck. It's the biggest heist of maple syrup in history. From the outside, this warehouse looks unremarkable. A red brick building sitting quietly, off a highway about two hours northeast of Montreal. But inside sits one of the most valuable assets in all of Canada. Barrel after barrel after barrel of maple syrup. Liquid gold. Perhaps it's best that this building is unassuming, considering the value of what is held within. Accountant Michel Gavreau pulls up to the building. It's a hot summer day, July 30th, 2012, and Michel has a job to do. He needs to make sure every barrel is accounted for. Michel is the kind of guy who loves a spreadsheet. He's organized, he's used to dotting the I's and crossing his T's, and he takes pride in making sure that he is very diligent in his tasks. He needs everything to be in order and that not a single penny is missing. And today's job, well, it's a pretty big one. A task that can't be completed in his air-conditioned office, because he needs to count these 16,000 barrels of maple syrup. By hand. That is a lot. That is a lot. He's getting his steps in. Michel steps inside the warehouse and he gets the feeling that something's off, something's wrong. First, he notices the smell. Not the sweet, cozy, comforting smell that you would expect from a warehouse full of maple syrup, but more of like a whiff of stale beer in the air. The floor is sticky, the concrete floor feels tacky under his shoes, like someone had spilled syrup and then maybe tried and failed to clean it up. Michel pauses. That's odd, but nothing seems out of place. So Michel makes a mental note to let the warehouse manager know to keep the place a little bit more cleaner, and then he gets to work. This space is a sea of metal barrels, row after row of perfectly symmetrical rows disappearing into the distance. Each one weighs more than 600 pounds. And Michel has a lot of work ahead of him. So he gets started, carefully stepping from barrel to barrel, climbing over them. It's like he's playing a game of Donkey Kong. He does this with ease, it's not his first rodeo, but when Michel gets to the top of a stack, the barrel beneath his foot suddenly shifts. Just slightly, just enough that he loses his balance. His arms windmill in the air for a few heart pounding seconds. Somehow, Michel manages to stay on his feet and he steadies himself. But now he knows there's certainly something off. He taps the barrel with his foot. Sounds hollow. Which is impossible. It's a 600-pound barrel of maple syrup, so it should never wobble, let alone sound hollow. Tapping again, Michel realizes the barrel is empty. Oh, what? Where did it go? Where did it go? Concerned, he checks another. Also empty. And another. Also empty. It feels like Plankton has stolen the Krabby Patty recipe, doesn't it? I feel like we're in the Pink Panther movie, barrel after barrel. He discovers they have all been drained. And by the end of his investigation, Michel and authorities found that $18.7 million Canadian dollars worth of maple syrup was missing. $18.7 million. Maple syrup is expensive. That's a lot of syrup. And a lot of money. Mm-hmm. It's a breakfast emergency. I really do feel like that's a lot of money. I feel like that's a lot of money. This is a Pink Panther meets Wes Anderson meets Ocean's Eleven film. Oh, totally. End story. Like, how in the world did someone steal $18.7 million worth of maple syrup and not get caught? Especially given how heavy they are. Like, I don't even understand getting away with one barrel. And also, what happens to Michel if he loses count in his, like, as he's going by? There's so many mysteries. Well, then also, who would want this much maple syrup? Aside from you. Me. And so many. But these are the questions we are going to ask and hopefully answer. Aside from you and so many. But mostly you. But before we get into it, we're going to shout out a couple of our sources for today's episode. There's an episode of the Netflix series, Dirty Money, all about this maple syrup heist. And an article by Brendan Burrell in Bloomberg News and reporting from Canada's National Post. Okay. I think it's very important to give context about maple syrup in general. Besides it being your favorite. We're getting into the facts. Maple syrup comes from the sap of maple trees. It is collected and slowly boiled down into the golden sweet syrup that we leather on our pancakes. And if you're Buddy the Elf from Elf, on our pasta. On your Brussels sprouts, in your coffee, on your ice cream. Yeah. In your oatmeal. Anywhere. Just guzzle it. Take a shot of it. Love it. It was first discovered by indigenous people in Northeastern North America, who then shared their knowledge with the European settlers in the 1600s. And naturally, you get one taste of maple syrup and you're hooked. So the European settlers were like, yep, this is a very important part of our lives and the regional trade. And then demand grew from there. Kind of ironic since the settlers came into the Northeast and like basically knocked down every single tree here. But maple syrup is still very prominent. And today, the global maple syrup market is worth roughly 1.6 to 2.5. 2.7 billion dollars per year. Canada produces about 70% of the world's maple syrup supply, producing roughly 18 to 20 million gallons of it per year. Oh my God. And then 90% of that 70% comes from Quebec. Wait, what was it? 18 to 20 million gallons. Per year. Which is wild. Because it takes somewhere between like 30 and 50 gallons of sap boiled down to just make one gallon of maple syrup to sell. You know that detail. That's a lot that you have to collect. That was not in the script. That is, Corinne just knows that off the top of her head. It's 30, but for some sugar bushes, it's a little bit more. But okay, so in simple terms, maple syrup isn't just delicious. It's also a billion dollar industry, which naturally that means there's a little bit of corruption, some power struggles, and shockingly in this story, some mafia energy. I believe it. Which is just so, like, this feels like a cartoon where it's like, I'm just picturing people like in their flannels and they're being boots and Birkenstocks. And it's like French mustaches. But like mafia vibes. It doesn't feel real. But it is. It is. And part of the problem is that maple syrup is also incredibly hard to predict. So sap only flows during a tiny window each year. So if it's too warm or too cold, production drops. By the time this episode comes out, we are probably past. Maple syrup sugaring season in Canada and maybe at the tail end in Vermont. All of my facts are going to come flowing. But essentially, it's chaotic. It's unpredictable. You can't just, like, assume you're going to get. It's just like any crop, right? Like, you can't assume you're going to get the same harvest every year. Right. So this is where a group called the Quebec Maple Syrup Producers comes in. So we're just going to call it the Federation for the sake of simplicity for the rest of this episode. The Federation was established in 1966 to regulate the production of maple syrup. within the province Quebec. Their goal was to control supply, stabilize prices, and also protect the farmers from those unpredictable harvests. On paper, that sounds great, right? You're like, yeah, in theory, sure. Yeah, you're like, oh, help the farmers and still get my maple syrup for breakfast. That's great. It's not as great as it sounds. So the Federation boasts keeping the industry stable, but when you actually look at the logistics of it, it's kind of more of like a maple syrup cartel. But a legal government-approved cartel. Yeah, but like it makes me mad. Like I'm kind of glad that they got robbed, but it's they got robbed after they robbed others, which we'll talk about. Yeah. So the Federation literally controls how much farmers are allowed to produce, who they can sell to, and how much they can get paid, which that is ludicrous. Yeah. So if farmers produce more than their allotted maple syrup, they have to send the excess to the Federation's reserve. And this maple syrup reserve was created in the year 2000, and the idea was basically to make sure the world always had enough maple syrup. Which we love. They have these things everywhere. They, isn't Wisconsin, don't they have like a cheese reserve? Oh, we were going to say more maple syrup facts, and I was like, I don't know, girl. I don't know. Wisconsin has a cheese reserve. Yeah, they're cheesetown. Upstate New York has like a whole seed bank in case the world ends. Right, so it's good to have the reserves. Yes, yes. Yeah, but they're controlling how much the farmers can sell, and then like stockpiling and holding it onto it. Exactly. So the farmers who overproduce, they have to send their excess to the reserve, but they don't get paid for their production, and sometimes they don't get paid for years, not until the Federation decides to sell the maple syrup do they get paid. And farmers are essentially capped, so they can't make more than the Federation allows, but they are allowed to make less. So I don't know how we're like protecting the farmers here, but that's what they're telling themselves here. And on top of that, the Federation is in charge of selling the syrup, and they also pocket a nice little percentage, a fee. So it's more than just setting regulations. They basically inserted themselves as the middleman and started pocketing money. Yeah. And there's a lot more legal financial drug in here, but the important thing to understand is that the Federation, which did start for good reason, is now seizing the opportunity to benefit for itself and restricts those who are actually producing the maple syrup. And for a lot of maple syrup producers, that's a nightmare because they want to sell their syrup in a free market system, but feel like they can't because the cartel is like overseeing everything. Also, it's kind of ridiculous because the whole thing is like, oh, well, there's unpredictable seasons, so like we're helping you here. But they're not at all, because then if you have a bad season, too bad, you make what you make. But if you have a good season, sorry, you're capped. Like you can't make up for the previous season because you can't sell or make more if you have more. So what do the farmers do? Well, some of them take matters into their own hands. And they have started to sell it on the black market, which I fully support, which I also love so much because it adds to the cartoonish nature of this environment and this like corporation. Yeah. That there is a black market maple syrup underworld. Like where do you buy it? Like where is the black market? How do you find it? I think you have to know someone. But these guys who sell on the black market, they call themselves barrel rollers because they roll barrels of syrup to the black market maple syrup, which I think is the coolest thing ever. Like if I'm going to present my maple syrup at breakfasts and be like, this is from the black market. But they can bring in sometimes upwards of 50 percent more per barrel than the Federation allows them to sell. So like I understand why they would use that avenue to sell. But the point is, in context that's important for this episode, is that maple syrup farmers and Corinne and I are annoyed with the Federation. And so that means black market sales, are commonplace. If you've spent years trying every diet out there only to end up feeling totally stuck, listen up. This summer can actually be different. You deserve to feel amazing in your own skin. And Weight Loss by Hers is here to help you finally shake things up. They now offer access to an affordable range of FDA approved GLP-1 medications, including both the Wagovi Pen and the brand new Wagovi Pill. Yes, a pill, which means you can lose up to 20 percent of your body weight when combined with diet and exercise. Absolutely no needles required. The entire process is 100 percent online. So you'll connect with a licensed medical provider right from your couch. There's no insurance necessary. And if prescribed, your treatment is delivered straight to your door. You also get 24-7 care team messaging and in-app lifestyle and nutrition tips to back you up every single step of the way. Ready to reach your goals? Visit forhers.com slash pave to get personalized, affordable care that gets you. That's F-O-R-H-E-R-S dot com slash pave forhers.com slash pave. Weight Loss by Hers is not available in all 50 states. Wagovi is the registered trademark of Novo Nordisk AS. To get started and learn more, including important safety information, Wagovi clinical study information and restrictions, visit forhers.com. Happy Halloween, Crime House listeners. I'm Vanessa Richardson. Join me every Sunday this month on Crime House 24-7 for Crime House of Horrors, where I dive into four stories behind some of our favorite scary movies. If you can't wait and want all four episodes now ad-free, join Crime House Plus. Join on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or at crimehouseplus.com. Yeah. You'd be a barrel roller. Right. Yeah. I don't know that I'd be rolling the barrels, but I think I'd be a customer. You'd be selling them. Oh, you'd just buy them. Yeah, yeah. Okay. I'd support them making more for their season. I agree. Okay, so this brings us to a man named Richard Valliere. Richard's dad owns a sugar shack, so he grew up in the maple syrup business and he knew his way around it. He learned how to work early on in this business, and he also saw the corruption firsthand from a very early age. And he watched the corruption firsthand, as his father and all the laborers worked so hard day after day. And all of that work was just being restricted and capped by the Federation without them being able to amass the wealth that they could, despite there being demand. So by the time that Richard was in his 20s, he was working in the business, actively trying to find ways to stick it to the Federation. He was like a maple syrup Robin Hood. I like that you said stick it too. I feel intentional. For sure. He started buying syrup directly from producers and reselling it to buyers outside of the Federation system, aka the black market. And by 2011, when Richard was in his 30s, he had been selling maple syrup on the black market for over a decade. The Federation was aware of Richard and his black market dealings, and they actually fined him $1.8 million in 2007 after being caught buying almost a literal ton of syrup out of the black market. And so he was like, I'm going to sell it to the Federation. Outside of their system, the Federation even seized his house. But Richard did not let that stop him. And then one summer day in 2011, a friend named Sebastian Jutra, who was a truck driver, tells him that there's someone he needs to meet. This is a guy with a great business opportunity. So Richard is like, okay, I love the sound of that. And he drives about an hour and a half outside of Montreal to meet this guy, this guy with this great business opportunity. So he pulls up, plans to meet at this particular spot. It's a truck stop along the highway. And this place is packed with families on road trips and people stopping to fill their tanks. And it's like definitely not like a quiet, like secret handshake dealing opportunity. Meeting in plain sight. Totally. The first thing Richard notices beyond the crowded parking lot is that there are a couple dozen giant plexiglass dinosaurs. I want to go to the truck stop or rest stop. How fun. This is so fun. Yeah. And under the watchful eyes of these stegosaurus and ferocious T-Rexes over here, Richard meets Sebastian and his friend, who was a guy named Avik Keron. Avik is in his late 30s, and he tells Richard that he can sell him a lot of maple syrup at a really good price. But here's the thing. Avik has no experience in the maple syrup business. But he does have a history of fraud. So naturally, Richard is a little suspicious of this business proposal. He was like, I love these dinosaurs at the rest stop, but I'm a little bit dubious of you, Avik. How can you say no in front of a stegosaurus? How could you say no? But more than the fact that Avik has no history of working in the maple syrup business, Richard knows that the year's maple syrup harvest wasn't good. So he's kind of like, how would Avik have access to maple syrup if the production this year was bad? It reminds me a bit of the sommelier wine heist situation or character, I guess. So in 2011, Canada's production was significantly lower than usual. And as context, in 2011, Quebec produced about 105 million pounds of maple syrup. But then the next year, in 2012, they produced 152 million pounds. So it's not catastrophic, but it was noticeable. And Richard knew that this was a farmer-wide issue. Everyone's harvest was low. So how is this Avik guy, who's just meeting for the first time, saying he can sell a ton of rate. Sounds too good to be true and then he wonders if he's being set up by someone at the federation because he's already gotten in trouble with the federation right operation sting you know but avik promises he's legit and that's when he reveals his source of maple syrup the own federation's reserve stockpile that's right avik is offering richard the maple syrup that the federation has been stockpiling and withholding sales of and as a man with a vendetta against the federation richard is like what could be better than stealing from the federation directly it kind of feels like stealing your own syrup back exactly in a way sweet kind of is sweet revenge so here richard is meeting this man that he's never met before being proposed this like most delicious plan under dinosaurs under under the the sunny skies and dinosaur land and this plan is to steal from the federation so he's obviously interested we're interested right now the crime has already happened wait are we too late to be a part of this i wish i had a mustache right now to like rub and curl yeah some wax for it so the federation is this massive entity so how in the world does avik who he's never heard of or met this guy before how does he have access to the stockpile of maple syrup avik explains that his wife happens to co-own a warehouse where the federation stores part of his global stockpile how convenient how convenient an inside job the federation is in the process of building their own new warehouse but until that's completed they have rented out this space avik's wife co-owns so avik has noticed that the warehouse is basically unguarded there is one on-site guard but otherwise barely any security cameras no one else walking around and there's a ton of syrup barrels everywhere so he's like it's sitting duck it's sitting maple syrup it's ripe for the picking and the more richard learns the more interested he becomes and he wants that sweet sweet sticky revenge and what better way to flip the bird to the regulators of the syrup than to steal the stockpile and sell it on the black market again plus also they'll make a ton of money so that's a huge lots of huge work yeah yeah so the the three men talk it over and they decide let's go for it all they have to do is make a plan and this is not just any plan it is a heist with everything they need right at their fingertips they have the access they have transportation and they have a buyer and if we have learned anything from oceans 11 is that every good heist needs a crew so we've got avik he's the inside man the one with the access to the warehouse then we have sebastian a truck driver he's the transportation he will move the barrels in and out under the cover of night so starting in august 2011 richard sebastian and avik put their plan into action they start by setting up a little group chat little text messages whatsapp with burner phones and they refer to each other only by their initials so richard is rv he expresses concern about the night guard how do we get around him ac avik says don't worry the night guard is in on it too so avik ac gets the syrup out of storage sebastian sj pulls up his truck loads it up for pickup and once they're in the warehouse they use a rented forklift to load barrels of syrup onto sebastian's tractor trailer over many weeks they take small amounts night after night barrels of maple syrup are loaded into the trucks they take these barrels to richard's father's sugar shack to process and richard's dad also hates the federation so keep this in mind he sees what's happening he's like yes i approve j'approve j'approve well he's stealing syrup back exactly and so you might be curious wouldn't the federation notice thousands of barrels going missing yes correct you would be correct in assuming that they would which is why our team of thieves wasn't stealing the physical barrels they were draining them into their own containers it's so crazy like siphoning gas out of literally and then they would refill the federation's barrels with water from a nearby stream sebastian would then drive the water filled barrels back to the warehouse and put them back so that no one noticed them missing which is kind of a complicated plan because they're removing the item but then they also have to return the item like there's you don't just escape with the barrel and and that's it's done it's stolen you're risking going back twice in like a night right which means that it's clearly so unguarded totally so every week sebastian goes to the warehouse late at night picks up a new batch of syrup replaces the stolen syrup with water and over about a year they stole nearly 3 000 tons of maple syrup again valued at over 18 million dollars dang that's some like crazy success with stealing maple syrup and i love this for them i don't know is this this should be made into like a dramatized film it should be if it hasn't already seth rogan yes the truck driver let's cast it now let's just make this okay we'll be back we're we're gonna go write a movie okay so now they're they're stealing the syrup that is working they're replacing it nothing seems to be happening in terms of them being caught and have a place which is richard's dad's sugaring operation his property to have the maple syrup on now they have to make money now they have to sell it right and so this is where richard is like this is this is my part this is my time to shine he sells some of the stolen syrup to a barrel roller in his late 60s named etienne saint pierre etienne is based out of new brunswick canada and new brunswick has some different rules than quebec does when it comes to maple syrup so etienne buys the syrup he then sells it in small batches to people who do not know it is stolen including vermonters so maybe i have also we all might have stolen syrup they're having so much success and bringing in so much money that like this part of the story starts to feel like breaking bad at one point sebastian collects a shoebox full of two hundred thousand dollars in cash from a buyer in a shoebox that's just so crazy another time he picks up a plastic bag containing a hundred thousand dollars just of bills they are rolling in the benjamins or except in this case they're the borden's because that's canada's eighth prime minister sir robert borden and he's on the money do you think they drink the syrup you know how people say like don't get high on your own supply doesn't apply to me i don't think so i don't think so i don't think so i don't think so i don't think so i don't think so i don't think so i don't think so i don't think so i don't think in this case okay but so instead of stashing the money away in their crawl space like walter white and saving it for their family our thieves decide they're gonna have a little bit of fun with it because they're they're they're excited about all the money coming in sebastian parties it up in cancun with richard and some of their other alleged um accomplices and over time the circle of people involved in the theft starts to expand so it starts with the three maybe four and then on it and now at this point like over a dozen men know about it so they're getting a little sloppy but they're still living it up right like this is so fun but overconfidence will come to bite you in the ass right yes they begin their heist in summer but as you know it's canada and winter comes with a lot of cold and snow and things that aren't so fun yeah and ice oh and that means that you can't just go down to the stream and use the water to refill your stolen barrels because it's probably frozen so richard rents his own warehouse where he can refill the barrels with water there but at some point they just returned some of the barrels completely empty because they're getting a little confident a little sloppy and at this point no one's noticed yeah right so now they're empty barrels in the federation's warehouse and maybe this was an accident maybe this was someone just forgetting to check the barrels before they put them back but unfortunately this is really what was the reason for their undoing and we'll get back to that in a minute the crew starts slipping up in a variety of ways so the original barrels in the federation's warehouse were in perfect condition but the ones that the crew has stolen and then refilled they're returning really dirty and really banged up so they look out of place they're a bit careless with their barrels finally towards the end of the heist they start draining the syrup out of the barrels directly at the federation's warehouse instead of doing it in another location which you're like okay well convenience convenience it's happening quicker maybe that's going to be more effective in terms of not damaging the barrel but they keep spilling the syrup so they're just leaving this sticky residue on the floor all of this evidence and then about a year into the operation a year a full year from the federation the accountant from the beginning of this episode michelle gavreau shows up to do his audit at the warehouse and he's like oh my god and this is when he ends up almost falling from the stack of barrels and discovers that a bunch of them are empty well also even that like the narrative that you painted in that moment in this case is so comical like this man climbing barrels that weigh 600 pounds getting to the top and like 14 375 14 370 like wobbling on top of an empty barrel yeah scared to fall into the sticky warehouse floor it so doesn't seem real right it's comical but yeah so this is when he basically realizes that some are empty and some have been filled with water so the federation now realizes they have been robbed and they are pissed lucky for them they are a government entity and the quebec provincial police launch a full-on investigation and from the get-go they know this is not just like a one-off casual random theft like this is such a massive scale that this like was more elaborate and although it's only started off with three guys right which is very impressive but the amount they're like it has to have like this didn't happen like overnight you know oh yes it's been going on for a long time which also insinuates to them that this is an inside job because it had to be someone who can consistently show up to the warehouse without raising too many alarm bells so while the police are trying to figure out who had access to the warehouse they're also trying to figure out where all the maple syrup is and who has been buying it and that is what brings them to etienne saint pierre in september of 2012 who is the syrup reseller in new brunswick canada so i'm not sure the specifics of how they tracked him down but basically there was enough evidence for them to issue a warrant so they show up at his business and they have the warrant but etienne has a very feisty second in command a great character for the movie julienne boussey who knows that warrant from quebec it's not valid in this province shoo shoo so she flips the bird to the cops and according to julienne she says she actually pretended to wipe her ass with the search warrant like amazing love her this is a movie yeah this is absolutely but this is this is a comedy i know sometimes cocaine bear but he's successful a beautifully designed squarespace website is the difference between thinking about photography school and selling your portraits online it's the difference between giving away those cookies you just made for free and running your cookie empire a beautifully designed squarespace website is the difference between having a movie reviewing hobby and a movie reviewing career squarespace because no matter what you're into a website makes it real use offer code difference for 50 off select plans terms and conditions apply my name is jack wagner host of other world a podcast featuring real people who experience something paranormal supernatural or unexplained i have no idea how i got there i don't think i've ever seen anything that looks like this it felt like electric stars on fire i started other world to take a grounded approach to the paranormal help people tell their own stories and encourage more to come forward i certainly don't have the answers but maybe one day we will join me as we explore our world's greatest mysteries listen to other world now for free wherever you get your podcasts so the cops come back about 12 hours later with a proper warrant now approved by a new brunswick judge and they gain access into well they actually have the pry into the warehouse like etienne doesn't let them in but they go into the warehouse with a crowbar and inside they find more than a million dollars worth of maple syrup i don't know why they didn't use that 12 hours to like move some of it but maybe it was just too much i don't know or like were they were some people still waiting there watching yeah either way with the evidence they did discover that's it when you back the truck up and then you're like oh well oops you have a warrant to search the warehouse but you don't have a warrant to search my truck anyway see they could have used me some lawyers out there being like that's not how it works so etienne caught red-handed the officers seize etienne's forklift all of his syrup all of his supplies everything is part of their investigation and then they accuse him of knowingly buying stolen syrup which he denies and in denying it he turns in everyone else the rest of the gang he tells cops that he got 700 to 800 barrels from richard and with this information they now need evidence against richard so police interview around 300 people and they issue 40 search warrants and it doesn't take them long before it all traces back to richard sebastian avic everybody which i'm so sad like i want them to get away me too i think just like crack open the sewer gate and then they go down disappear in december of 2012 the cops arrest all three of them richard and avic are charged with conspiracy to commit theft and possession of stolen property and sebastian also faces charges but he pleads guilty and he collaborates with the investigation and investigators and basically rats out the other two to get a lesser sentence which i'm not surprised yeah that's common it is there's always someone yeah they turn on one another in total there are 16 arrests involved in this heist 16 people arrested wow that included etienne saint pierre who was charged with fraud for buying stolen syrup from avic and redistributing it and also this one makes me sad richard's dead no because he knowingly was allowing them to store stolen syrup on his land in his farm so everyone was turning on each other proving that every sweet deal eventually turned sticky gotta have the puns okay so now all of our thieves are finding themselves in sticky situations there are multiple arrests being made and their trials are imminent but it did take a few years for the investigators and officials to put all the pieces together because even in canada the judicial system is slow so finally in 2016 four years after his arrest richard valier goes to trial and at this point in the story it becomes very clear that every one involved in the heist and in case are starting to look out for themselves like everyone's turning on one another so it's put yourself first put your own mask on oxygen mask yeah help yourself before you help others yeah help yourself before you backstab everyone or backstab everyone before they backstab you yeah that's the that's the one so etienne has turned on richard sebastian has turned on richard so now richard is like okay well i have to turn on someone now too so in court he admits that he did refill the barrels of stolen syrup with water but but but but he was forced to do it and was held at gunpoint oh my gosh he basically tells the court that avik forced him to do it and threatened him and his family at gunpoint the drama he was claiming he was terrified forced to commit these crimes or else that it was a matter of life or death which unfortunately no one buys well also like why would avik bring in a third party into a warehouse that he already has access to yeah owns doesn't need other witnesses yeah that makes no sense richard was like i have to try something and unfortunately it didn't work for that reason for many reasons but also because richard has already gotten in trouble with the federation so many times like this is not like this is his first time doing shady business with maple syrup but no he has a record and a history of selling on the black market a big theme at the time was the black market and the black market was the black market trials was how much our band of thieves hated the federation and its regulations sebastian testified that richard said stealing from thieves is not stealing which i agree with i agree with that too meanwhile avik was scheduled to go to trial in early 2017 and initially he fought the charges but then probably seeing the writing on the wall he decided to plead guilty right before his trial was about to start and at his sentencing hearing avik also tried to off-put all of the blame and testified that the montreal mob provided equipment and drivers and the judge knew that that wasn't true because there was literally no evidence of any of that at all but avik also said that there was accomplices or an accomplice inside of the federation but apparently the cops investigated a federation employee regarding the theft but never charged them with a crime so it's like maybe there was maybe there wasn't but it didn't seem like it was they didn't have enough evidence to prove it but they didn't have enough evidence to prove it totally new information right and then avik lost it he lashed out at the judge cursed the judge out and he got so up in arms that it was actually reported that avik had to be restrained so like when he realized like the jig was up that he wasn't gonna get away with it he lost his shit so in the end all the men we have spoken about the main players of the crime richard avik sebastian etienne and sadly richard's dad were convicted of a crime and they were also convicted of a crime for their various roles in a scheme etienne was fined 1.3 million dollars for his role in the heist richard's father had to pay this is i mean it's a lot of money but i think he was okay yeah best sentencing he had to pay around ten thousand dollars sebastian the truck driver served eight months in prison for transporting the swollen syrup avik whose wife co-owned the warehouse they robbed got five years and had to pay a 1.2 million dollar fine then like you said after the sentencing avik freaked out even more claiming his lawyer tricked him into pleading guilty that he wasn't actually guilty at all and he's like no no i take it all back i demand a trial yeah just say whatever you can to try to get away with it and it didn't work he was restrained after getting very physical with a guard in the courtroom and then finally richard he got the longest sentence after being framed as the mastermind which in a way he was but also he was the last person to come approached him right yeah he was the final party he wasn't the one with the idea but i think he was the one with the connections power he was the essential equation person was he really i don't know Probably doesn't matter because what matters is the courts did see him as the mastermind and he was sentenced to eight years in prison. And a $9 million fine. $9 million. Yeah. It did get reduced to $1 million on appeal. Which is still crazy. It's still a lot. But then Canada's Supreme Court overturned that and they were like, actually, no, you are responsible for the full $9 million. Dang. Playing with his emotions. Can you imagine? You, like, go in thinking that they're going to be like, actually, you don't need the $1 million either. They're like, oh, we're increasing it by $8 million again. Back up to $9. And what of the Federation, you may ask? This legal mafia in Canada. Oh, Canada. They faced no real consequences. Sorry? Yeah. Sorry. Sorry? What? Aside from public embarrassment and the millions of dollars of maple syrup that was stolen, they faced no real consequences. Canada, you're forgiven for giving us heated rivalry. And also that maple syrup never really belonged to them anyway. But the Federation did have insurance. So they say that they were able to reimburse all of the producers whose maple syrup was stolen. Which I hope is true. Yes. And I'm not encouraging you, our jury, the listeners of our podcast, to go do some massive maple syrup heists. But I also do really understand why Richard and this group, did it. I feel like there's obviously, as we've portrayed in this episode, major corruption and a lot of other issues regarding the Federation and how they managed the control over the maple syrup supply. It has some vigilante energy to it, for sure. I was rooting for the thieves the entire time. Me too. Which is like, it's tough. It's technically a crime. But it's like, which crime happened first? Was the Federation the first crime? Kind of seems like it was. It was. You know what this reminds me of? You said something the other day that kind of like made my mind, go, whoa. I was like, talking about a crime scene. And you're like, well, not every crime scene needs to have a body. And it was kind of like you told me like every square is a rectangle, but not every rectangle is a square. But I feel like when it comes to like true crime, we never really. You think of like a murder. You think of murder. But this is one where I'm glad no one was harmed. And I was full on on the side of the thieves, rooting for them. Yeah, me too. I think I said it in the first 30 seconds of the recording. You heard maple syrup and corruption. You're like, whoever's doing good for maple syrup, I'm on their side. Yeah. They're not throwing the syrup away. They're giving it to the people. Exactly. And there are a lot of maple syrup producers and a lot of people just generally, Corinne and I included, who feel the same way as the thieves and viewed them as heroes for standing up against a system that was very, very unfair. Yeah. And the Federation, while embarrassed about what happened, for sure, it has faced criticism over the years and remains unchanged. Sad. The only changes they've made are enhancing their security at their warehouses. And to this day, the Federation remains firmly in control of the Canadian maple syrup supply and therefore most of the maple syrup supply worldwide. And just because they caught these barrel rollers does not mean that they put an end to black market maple syrup dealings. No. No. That is still very prominent today. But those barrel rollers just know that they cannot steal from the Federation directly. Which, in a way, does mean that we could be consuming black market maple syrup without knowing it. Not to, like, encourage another crime upon a crime, but, like, But kind of? How do they know if a sugaring operation has overproduced? Can this kind of be, like, where you don't declare all of your earnings on taxes? That exists. It exists, too, yeah. Can you just say you didn't have as much syrup that year? But they control the sales of it, too. So then you would have to sell your overproduction on the black market, which I encourage. Do it. Or say that you only sold 70 gallons to this one person who happens to be your cousin. And then your cousin sells the way larger amount. There's ways to commit crime. Corinne is basically a barrel roller now. I feel passion. I feel passion about this. I think this is the one crime I could get in on. You're going to start a consulting business. It's just how to sell maple syrup on the black market. The rules are I have to taste test the syrup first. You have to wine and dine me with your syrup. Okay. That's a good deal. Anyway, actually. That's how you get paid? Yeah. Just in maple syrup. Okay, this is the final piece of the case. Because what happened to the millions of dollars of maple syrup that the group did successfully steal? It's in all of our bellies. Because they only. They only discovered about $1 million of the $18 million of maple syrup that was stolen when they were at Etienne's warehouse. So where did the rest go? Apparently, about two-thirds of the stolen syrup was located, but only about one-seventh of it was actually recovered. The rest of it was sent to stores in the U.S. So that means it's even more likely that we are consuming stolen black market maple syrup. Vermont maple syrup. And then you look at the back and you're like, well, where in Vermont? Federation of Kingdoms. Stolen. This case has definitely left a mark in the world of true crime and in our hearts. Because it's just so weird. And it's so fun. And we recommend watching the episode on Netflix in the series Dirty Money because it's a really good one. Also, we have not personally watched this, but in 2024, Amazon released a fictional series called The Sticky, which is inspired by this heist. Also, being called Sticky is such a good street name. That is. Criminal name. Hey, Sticky. I'm looking for Sticky. Where's Sticky? That's your barrel roller name. Fuck yes. Anyway, that's next on our watch list. Oh, I absolutely have to watch that. And then stay tuned for future, who knows how many years down the line, the movie that we're going to make about it. Featuring Seth Rogen. He's already signed on. He's the only person in the cast so far. He's perfect. He lives in Canada. Yeah, great. Well, thank you so much for listening. We are your hosts, Sabrina Dianaroga and Corinne Vian. Join us next Tuesday for another peek inside another Crimes of Deception. And if there are any cases that you would like us to cover, please let us know in the comments. Here at CrimeHouse, we want to thank each and every one of you for your support. And if you like what you heard today, reach out on all social media at CrimeHouse. Don't forget to rate, review, and follow Crimes Of wherever you get your podcasts. Your feedback truly makes a difference. And with that, the trial is over. Goodbye, jurors. Jury, you are dismissed. Did you know penicillin, the drug that has saved more lives than any other in history, was discovered because a scientist forgot to clean a Petri dish before going on vacation? I'm Connor Tomlinson, and history is my thing, has been my whole life. And I'm Carter Roy. And this is What The Fact, the history lesson you actually wished you had in high school, with everything they cut for being too interesting put back in. Every week, we take the wildest true things that ever happened and tell you the whole story behind them. I bring the history. I bring the facts, the tangents, and the occasional British accent. The wildest stuff is real. And the real stuff is wilder than you think. New episodes every Wednesday. Follow What The Fact on Apple Podcasts. Spotify, Amazon Music, or subscribe on YouTube at What The Fact Pod. A woman once survived a fall for more than two miles up because she crash-landed on a nest of furious fire ants. A 13th century pope once condemned black cats as the servants of Satan. A lumberjack once survived near decapitation by his own chainsaw. Now, these aren't tall tales. They aren't urban legends. They're real events. I want to take a quick moment to tell you about The Unbelievable, a new podcast from the History Channel and Rewind Studios. Adapted from the hit TV show, every episode opens a cabinet of curiosities to uncover the strangest but true stories in human history, then digs into the historical record to show you exactly how and why they happened. People, odd places, peculiar events. When it comes to history, the truth is always more unbelievable than you think. Follow The Unbelievable on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Looking for your next podcast? Check out What The Fact. 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