The Great Canadian Maple Syrup Heist lasted several months from 2011 to 2012, with thieves stealing 3,330 tonnes of maple syrup from a Quebec plant.
Image Professionals GmbH / Alamy Stock PhotoMaple syrup for sale in Canada.
Over the course of several months in 2011 and 2012, a group of thieves began quietly draining the barrels of syrup. They either replaced it with water or left the barrels empty. No one noticed until July 2012.
Then an inspector named Michel Gavreau was doing an inventory check when he climbed onto the 600-pound barrels and one of them tipped over, according to a Today report in 2024. That's when he realized something was wrong. The barrels of syrup were supposed to be heavy enough to support his weight. But one of the barrels was completely empty.
A routine inspection of Gavreau revealed a shocking truth. Upon further investigation, inspectors discovered that thousands of barrels were empty or filled with water. The syrup intended to stabilize an entire industry had been stolen from right under everyone's noses.
So who was behind the Great Maple Syrup Heist?
In the Trail of Maple Syrup
Once QMSP realized what had happened, they called in Quebec’s provincial police, the Sûreté du Québec, to investigate. According to a 2012 report in The New York Times, investigators quickly determined that the maple syrup theft was an inside job. The thieves had rented another part of the warehouse, allowing them to come and go without warning.
Indeed, the maple syrup heist was not a one-man operation. The thieves were a team of truck drivers, syrup dealers, and sugar shanty workers who worked together to pull off the heist. People with access to the warehouse quietly transported the barrels to other warehouses. From there, they sold the syrup to unsuspecting buyers in Ontario, New Brunswick, and the United States.
Once the syrup was sold, it was nearly impossible to trace. Most of it was consumed or mixed into legal batches before anyone realized it had been stolen. In the end, only about 25 percent of the syrup was ever recovered.
During the investigation, police interviewed more than 200 people and arrested 26 suspects, but they soon narrowed down
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