The great Quebec maple syrup heist
Quebec, Canada, 2011 and 2012
This case is a work of fiction. The characters, names, places and events in the game do not portray real people. The account below is a factual summary, based on public sources, of the case that served as inspiration.
The Federation of Quebec Maple Syrup Producers keeps a strategic syrup reserve to balance prices between good and bad harvests. Part of that reserve was stored in a rented warehouse in Saint-Louis-de-Blandford, with no cameras and no alarm, and the barrels were checked only once a year. In July 2012, during the annual inventory, an inspector found that many barrels were empty or filled with water.
The investigation showed that, for months, the thieves took barrels to a remote sugar shack, drained the syrup, filled the barrels with water and returned them to the warehouse. About 3,000 tonnes, from more than 9,000 barrels, valued at 18.7 million Canadian dollars, were sold off gradually to distributors in New Brunswick and Vermont. In December 2012 police arrested 17 men; the ringleader was sentenced to eight years in prison and a huge fine, upheld by the Supreme Court of Canada in 2022, and a hauler got eight months.
Sources
In the game
Golden Syrup
Maple syrup reserve warehouse, rural Quebec, Thursday, 10 am. During the annual inspection, the inspector climbed a stack of barrels and one of them wobbled under her foot: it was full of water.
The game borrows the reserve warehouse, the water-filled barrels found at the annual inspection and the syrup sold across the border. Characters, investigative details and outcome are fiction.
