Two people charged in maple syrup heist this summer
December 19, 2012
There have been three people arrested and two charged in connection to the maple syrup heist, which was worth $18 million, in Quebec this past summer, according CBC News.
Richard Vallieres, 34, and Avik Caron, 39, were both charged with theft, conspiracy, handling stolen good and fraud. These individuals are not the only ones suspected to be involved with this major heist. The Quebec provincial police are still looking for five suspects, four men and one woman, in connection with the maple syrup theft, according to the news source.
The thieves made out with 9,600 barrels of maple syrup between August 2011 and July 2012 out of a warehouse in Saint-Louis-de-Blandford. When the heist was first discovered, it was believed to have been $30 million worth of syrup disappeared, but then it turned out that fewer barrels were missing than they originally thought, the media outlet reports.
Police were able to recover about 70 percent of the stolen syrup, but the remainder of it is expected to be sold in the U.S., and Simon Trepanier, the maple syrup federation's interim director, is hoping they will be able to recover this too.
"We're asking the government to help us with that," Trepanier told the news source. "If there's any maple syrup ... stolen and it's now in the States, if it's our syrup, we want it back."
The investigation was quite thorough, the Quebec provincial police spokesman, Claude Denis, explained that they dished out more than 40 search warrants all over the country and in the United States.
"During the investigation, police officers met approximately 300 people working in the production and sale of maple syrup and transportation," Denis told the media outlet.
According to The Associated Press, the Federation of Maple Syrup Producers explained that they found out about the missing syrup after a routine inventory check. Since the warehouse was so large, it was not immediately evident that barrels had been stolen. Just that warehouse alone houses an equivalent to about a half of the entire U.S. production of maple syrup in a year. The federation originally kept quiet about the theft, as they were hoping the police would be able to solve it quickly, but that was not the case.
Those who want to talk about the recent events can make calls to Canada using international calling cards.