Dirty Money (2018–…): Season 1, Episode 5 - The Maple Syrup Heist - full transcript
In Canada, maple syrup is worth more than oil. When $20 million of syrup goes missing, the trail leads back to an epic battle between cartels and the little guy.
[Brian McGinn]
Okay, where should we start?
[in French] First, you need to know...
it is a cartel.
Or we say it's like...
a communist regime.
Or a regime of terror.
Or a bit like the mafia.
No one can stop...
the Federation of Maple Syrup Producers.
They took all my syrup.
They started taking our right to speak.
The Federation owes us a lot of money.
They will turn us all into criminals.
[theme song playing]
[Simon Trepanier] It's an insult in Canada
to serve fake maple syrup on the table.
It's like if you are in France
and, instead of serving wine,
you are serving water.
Maple syrup for Québecers
is part of not only our culture,
but it's running through our veins.
I don't know what I would be doing
without maple syrup somewhere in my life.
[Carolyn Jarvis] You grow up in Canada
and maple syrup is everywhere.
The maple leaf is on our flag.
It's what our country represents.
I'd say it's almost like baseball
to Americans.
It is our national treasure.
And we keep it
in our Global Strategic Reserve.
It's like the Fort Knox of Canada.
One barrel worth about $1,800.
About 30 times the price of oil.
And if you want to work with maple syrup,
you have to deal with
the Federation of Maple Syrup Producers.
[Hans Mercier]
It became a very lucrative business.
That's when it went from
such a proud industry
to such mercenary work.
[Angèle Grenier in French] The Federation
has labeled me a "rebel of the system."
Yes, I rebel.
I fight so producers can regain
their freedom from this mafia.
[Normand Urbain in English]
They play with words like "mafia."
And, ''We don't own
our maple syrup anymore.''
And, my God, I'm gonna shed a tear.
It's sexy to sell something
when there's a controversy,
but it doesn't mean
you have all the facts.
We wanted this system
and we still want this system.
Over 80%.
[Jarvis] There is a war going on
in the maple syrup industry in Québec
between people that want a free market
and people that are very proud
of this Federation.
And it's really created this environment
for theft of maple syrup to happen.
[Julien Beauchamp-Laliberte]
August 24, 2012,
the Federation of Maple Syrup Producers
lay a complaint to the Sûreté du Québec,
the provincial police corps,
reporting a theft at the warehouse.
The crime was really unusual.
It's not about blood, it's not about hair.
It was simply about maple syrup.
It's like, if someone stole milk
from your fridge,
and you called the police and said,
"Hey, someone stole the milk
from my fridge.
Find all that milk, please."
Syrup does not have a GPS on it,
does not have any serial number,
and the worst of it is that
you can eat it.
So they build up
a special investigator team
with 250 investigators.
It was the biggest crime scene
that they ever investigated.
[camera shutter clicking]
For the first two weeks,
the main job of the police
was just to find out
which barrels were emptied
or which barrels were still full.
[Luc Briand in French]
While we were inspecting the barrels,
we noticed one had a ring of rust.
Syrup does not sweat.
Even if it's cold,
it's not like a glass of water
that leaves a ring on the table.
We started opening barrels.
They were filled with water.
[Beauchamp-Laliberte]
By the end of the investigation,
around 9,561 barrels
had been discovered stolen.
Worth more than $18 million.
It was the biggest theft ever in Québec.
Well, Canada seems to have
a bit of a sticky problem
when it comes to maple syrup.
Apparently, lots of it, really lots of it,
has been stolen
from a strategic reserve of maple syrup
in Québec.
[Jarvis] When I heard about
this maple syrup theft,
I thought, ''Are you kidding me?"
People might be less surprised
if it was $18 million worth of cocaine,
but this wasn't, it was syrup.
[announcer] Here's Carolyn Jarvis.
Good evening and welcome to 16×9.
Is it time for a rethink across the board?
The journalism that I embark on
can change people's lives
and change laws in some cases, too.
But, I mean, it's maple syrup.
My approach is always to walk up to people
and to present myself,
and ask them to tell their story to me.
Can we just ask you about your role
in the theft?
[in French] I've told everything
to my lawyer and the investigators,
so I've got nothing to say.
-Can we have a couple of words with you?
-[speaking French]
[Jarvis] There is only one version
of the truth and that's the truth.
That's what we are trying
to core down into.
What really happened here?
What was the precise chronology
of how things unfolded?
And the more I looked into it,
the more I realized
that it had all started with
the Federation of Maple Syrup Producers.
So, they call Québec
the Saudi Arabia of maple syrup,
and the Federation is essentially OPEC.
It's a legal cartel that is employing
strict, strict, strict control
with the total goal
of keeping prices stable.
There's an enforced quota
that tells producers
how much maple syrup
they can make in any season.
So, in high-production years,
any excess syrup is placed
in the Global Strategic Reserve
of maple syrup.
This is the backup maple syrup supply
for the world.
If there's a low-production year,
the syrup is released into the market.
It's all about supply and demand.
For some producers, it works really well
because it keeps the price where it's at.
But there are a lot of people
that are really angry right now in Québec
because they want a free market.
They don't want this system
that tells them
what they can and cannot do.
It doesn't work for them.
[Grenier in French] I've always
had a dream that my husband and I
would be able to retire peacefully
in our own sugar bush.
When I started with syrup production,
the Federation already existed.
Until 2000, I didn't have any issues.
Then the Federation prepared
to take power.
The Federation started
an exclusive selling agency
so that we can't sell elsewhere.
It is written
in the Federation's regulations,
the sap that runs in my maple trees
belongs to them.
I can tell you that up to 90% of producers
were against the new system.
We knew we were losing our freedom.
So there was nothing to stop me
from fighting.
It's a fight for everyone
to have the right to sell
outside of the system of Québec.
It's the Federation or freedom.
[Urbain] I don't need a black market.
I follow the rules,
I'm making ends meet
and I'm proud of what I'm doing.
I'm doing it because
I want my kids to look up to me
just like I look up to my dad.
My father was the second vice president
of the Federation.
It's people like my dad that fought hard
and risked everything
and were able to get us
to where we are today.
I remember going with my dad in the '80s
to the maple syrup conferences.
The places were always half full
and there were only people with gray hair.
Back then, everything was a free market,
but a lot of people went belly-up.
I remember the next door neighbors
cutting down all the maples.
People thought they would get more return
by cutting the trees
than by tapping the trees.
There was no real future in the industry.
THE FARMERS ARE ORGANIZING
And then the Federation started
controlling the supply of the maple syrup.
At first, a lot of people were discontent,
and then they started seeing
the prices going up.
Nowadays, you go to the conferences
and you see all of these young people.
There's actually a future.
It's a success story...
but it's not being talked about.
[newsreader] Producers like Angèle Grenier
say the Federation is a den of thieves.
[in French]
It's harassment and intimidation.
It's one legal battle after another.
I have a stack at my house.
It's like I'm in purgatory.
[Urbain] It's always
the same people that are going on TV.
[indistinct chatter]
[Urbain]
And it's easy for them to criticize.
What do you propose instead?
A free market?
Tried that, done that, failed.
Playtime is done.
At first, when police came in,
they did not have any specific suspects.
And for them, at first,
everybody could have been a suspect.
During the investigation,
over 223 witnesses were met.
By meeting one witness after another,
the police started to build up a case
that concentrates on some people.
Avik Caron was one of the owners
of the warehouse.
Before buying the warehouse,
he was convicted of a fraud
against an insurance company,
for his involvement
in a fake stealing of a car.
So he has already been involved
in fraudulent operation.
Someone from the Federation
had another theory
about who was one
of the main ringleaders of that theft.
From the start,
I suspect that the Federation
when the time came to find a scapegoat,
they said, "That's Vallières for sure!"
Because Vallières was probably
the most-known barrel roller in Québec.
On the black market,
the producers sell everything
that they produce over quota
to barrel rollers,
who then resell to exporters.
Well, it's illegal in the sense that
you have to be an authorized buyer
to buy and sell.
So you may be liable to a fine
of some sort.
And my client had been fined
over a million dollars for selling syrup,
which, of course,
benefited the Federation.
[Jarvis] You don't think about
Richard Vallières
and think about
drugs and guns and violent crime.
This is a maple syrup dude
that worked in maple syrup,
his dad had a sugar shack in the bush,
and who worked outside the rules
of this Federation.
And clearly thumbed his nose
at the Federation.
We've got a long history with that guy.
We thought maybe there's a path here,
because that guy knows how to sell
maple syrup on the black market.
There is early speculation
that the maple syrup
may have already left the province
and headed off the to US or Europe.
How do you get rid of
that much maple syrup?
How does it seep back into the system?
[St. Pierre in French]
I was the only one in New Brunswick
to start buying maple syrup
and exporting it in the US and Europe.
I was buying from big shots
like Richard Vallières,
but I have small producers
who sell to me, too.
One day, Angèle Grenier said,
"I can sell you syrup."
She was frustrated with the Federation.
I think they owed her a lot of money.
The system in Québec,
it's like...
a prostitute market.
The producers work very hard,
but it's the Federation
that is paid very nice salaries.
[in English] Just like a pimp.
[in French] The Federation says
it's a black market,
but it isn't a black market.
I have a license from Ottawa,
and in Ottawa it's a free market.
I didn't sign any contract
with this syndicate,
so I will fight until the end.
[Grenier]
Okay, now you put it all at once.
Okay. I'm going to stir it a little.
Okay, Katrina.
You'll see, it's going to turn into sugar.
-[Katrina] A trio of three.
-A trio of three.
Since I didn't want to conform
to their regulations,
they fined me $50,000.
We had several lawyers at the beginning,
but they only thought of
how much they could make.
But then we arrived at Hans Mercier,
and he really wanted to fight the battle.
[Mercier] When you go to a party
and they say,
"What kind of law do you practice?"
and you say, "Maple syrup,"
you usually get a laugh.
"Are you serious?" and I say, "Yeah."
I think the Federation started
with good intentions.
They wanted to help the producers
stabilize their income.
But, at some point,
they created this system
that became more and more unhealthy.
They've tried for years
to paint the rebels as crooks
and people who would screw the system
for financial gain,
but that's simply not true.
These are good people.
But they get hundreds of thousands
in penalties,
and in some cases, millions.
I'm the kind of guy,
when I see that, I want to change it.
One of the biggest fights we actually had
a few years back
was to say that these fines
were unconstitutional.
I won the Appeal Court decision.
Six or seven months later,
the government came back in
with a special law to bring them back.
That's how powerful the Federation is.
They do the rules. They apply the rules.
They cash in the fines.
Judge, jury and executioner.
[train horn sounds]
In material evidence
found in the warehouse,
fingerprints, footprints,
scratches on the barrels,
forensic investigators
were starting to build up a case.
[Briand in French]
The Federation's drivers
always use these specific forklifts,
because they do not leave a mark.
But the empty barrels we found
had marks on the sides.
We could see
this was caused by a forklift.
[Beauchamp-Laliberte]
The investigators had to find out
where the forklifts were rented
so they actually just went
from one renting shop to another
and see if someone rented
that special forklift.
One of the accused left his name
at one of the places.
[Jarvis] I'm a journalist.
And we're doing a story
investigating the Federation.
And I wanted to speak with you
to get your side of the story.
-[Sébastien Jutras] All right.
-Okay. We're starting.
Did you transport stolen syrup?
I transport the maple syrup,
but I don't know it's stolen.
Nobody ever said to you,
"This syrup is stolen."
Nope.
-You were just a driver?
-Yeah, that's it.
[speaking French]
[Jarvis] On the surface,
Sébastien seems like a really nice guy.
He didn't have a criminal flair to him.
Was he playing dumb? Was he in on it?
What came to light was that
he was the connector between Avik Caron...
and Richard Vallières.
[Beauchamp-Laliberte] In 2010, Avik Caron
decided to buy the warehouse
in Saint-Louis-de-Blandford.
And in 2011, the Federation came to them
and asked if they can rent some place
in the warehouse
to store maple syrup.
When Avik Caron came
and saw that maple syrup...
he found himself sitting on a goldmine.
He had no prior relation with maple syrup.
So in order to steal it
and actually make money off it,
he needed someone who can do it
on the black market.
He asked Sébastien Jutras
to find him a guy
who was in the maple syrup black market.
Sébastien Jutras knows Richard Vallières.
For Richard, selling maple syrup
on the black market,
that was familiar to him.
But he took it to the next level
by engaging with Avik.
[Grenier in French] It was a Sunday,
and I was working in the sugar bush.
And I realized that, on the road,
there was a car stopped.
[camera shutter clicking]
I was being filmed.
It was a private investigator
from the Federation.
[Mercier] The approach of
the Federation was, "Break them.
Remove any fight they have in them."
These people would go in their houses,
ask for their electricity bills,
their gas bills.
Your personal bank account, what you gave
to your wife as alimony, they didn't care.
Oversight isn't bad itself,
but personal freedoms
should be the basis of it.
At some point,
some of them started saying,
"I thought I lived in a free country.
This has to stop."
People were refusing inspection.
[indistinct chatter]
[Mercier] One time,
there was a mob of 50 people
waiting for an inspector, and says,
"You better turn back or we'll make you.
You're not getting in that sugar bush."
[in French] You're going to
wake up somewhere
and you're going to get straightened out.
[Mercier] I would say
that was a turning point.
That's when the rebel movement
started to gain momentum.
[in French] We want to break up
this monopoly, the UPA.
[Mercier] Now you have producers
that are trying to take this fight
all the way up to the Supreme Court.
This is gonna be fighting fire with fire.
[indistinct chatter]
[Urbain in French] A photo with Granddad.
[in English] When my father
was the regional president,
he had a lot of other people to convince
to get on board with the system.
[speaking French]
[in English] Sometimes you get threats.
People would like to continue the way
they were doing before.
Sometimes, it gets nasty.
I remember, in 2000,
we were tapping the trees.
I look up to the sugar shack.
I saw a lot of smoke.
I don't remember how I got
my snow shoes off, and I ran,
and arrived at the door
and it was too late.
Our operation was on fire.
We were the first of three.
THE MAPLE SYRUP MAFIA HIT
FEDERATION PRESIDENT'S SUGAR SHACK BURNS
I can't accuse anyone, but I can say this.
FIRE AT PIERRE LEMIEUX'S SUGAR SHACK
IS OF CRIMINAL ORIGIN
Three fires in two weeks.
All of those three happened to be
regional presidents of the Federation.
Coincidence?
It was the first time I saw my father cry.
What did my father do to deserve this?
Because we get into an assembly and we
democratically vote to do certain things,
it gives the right to go
to these extremes?
The Madrid is a pit stop, just beside
Highway 20 here in Québec.
In June 2011, a meeting occurred between
Avik Caron, Sébastien Jutras
and Richard Vallières.
The team decided that Avik Caron's role
was to steal the syrup
and Richard Vallières' role was to
transport it, transform it and sell it.
At that point, they actually agreed
to move on with the theft.
[Jarvis] This was really well coordinated.
With a whole enterprise of people.
[Beauchamp-Laliberte] Barrels were lifted
from the warehouse, put into trucks,
and then they'd have to introduce
new fake barrels.
Sébastien Jutras brought 104 barrels
that were taken from a legitimate company.
[Jarvis] Every single barrel
looks exactly the same.
They had to get the exact same paint color
to make sure that they were identical.
The same shade of blue,
and the right sticker on it
with a Federation stamp that labels them
as being Federation barrels
so that nothing looked off.
[Beauchamp-Laliberte] And then they would
move the barrels into a warehouse
rented by Richard Vallières.
There, the syrup needed to be transferred
from the original Federation barrels
to other containers.
[Jarvis] Some say they took those barrels
to a creek
and then put water in on the spot.
[Beauchamp-Laliberte]
The barrels were transported back
to the original warehouse.
And then Richard Vallières sells the syrup
to Étienne St. Pierre,
who transports to the United States,
Germany and Japan.
This was going on
from the year 2011 up to 2012.
[ship horn blowing]
[Jarvis] Richard Vallières
was over his head.
I think he should have done his research.
I think he should have looked into who
he was about to start doing business with
under the table.
If anybody had looked into Avik,
they might have thought twice
about doing business with him.
Caron is not a man who is involved
with maple syrup.
He's got no history
in the maple syrup industry.
This was somebody with a criminal past.
There were allegations that were
quite serious. Mafia connections.
People started to feel uncomfortable
with what was going on.
But they were in it so deep,
they couldn't stop.
They knew that their numbers
could be traced,
so they got burner cell phones.
You read those text messages,
and it shows the increasing concern
and anxiety about what was going on.
[cell phone chiming]
[reporter] Police are investigating a huge
maple syrup heist outside Montreal.
Thousands of gallons of maple syrup
were taken from a warehouse.
[cell phone chiming]
[Jarvis] Things all of a sudden
started escalating, becoming more scary.
Richard claims that
Avik Caron said to him,
"I know where you live."
And that if he spoke out,
that he would get shot in the head.
It was in their best interest
not to say anything,
or else they were going to go to jail
for some serious time.
[interrogator in French] So you can
just sit in the back, Sébastien.
Have you had any promises
or threats from anyone for doing this?
-No promises.
-Okay.
Obviously, they told me
it wouldn't hurt my cause,
but no promises.
That's a fact. It's called collaboration
in the investigation.
[Jutras] Avik Caron.
I knew people who sold syrup
because I was shipping syrup.
[interrogator] Okay.
So he told me, I have some syrup to sell.
I didn't know where it came from.
He asked, "Could you give me
your guy's number?"
So I gave him Richard Vallières' number.
Then I saw the barrels.
1+1=2.
I understood.
Because they were making you deliver
syrup elsewhere?
[interrogator] Okay.
I understood what was going on.
Sébastien Jutras testified
against Avik Caron and Richard Vallières.
But he also testified
against Étienne St. Pierre.
In order to make money,
the thieves needed to sell the maple syrup
to an exporter.
Étienne St. Pierre
was outside of the main theft.
But moving and selling maple syrup
produced in Québec was illegal.
[St. Pierre in French]
They seized everything, all my syrup.
Then they seized
all of the business documents.
They closed my bank accounts.
They said I plotted, but I never plotted.
Richard just called me
and he asked me if I wanted syrup.
And I said yes.
The police told me
it was all regarding the theft,
but it wasn't just for the theft.
I think it was to stop my business.
The Federation doesn't like it
when anybody else does business.
For them, it's all about
controlling the syrup. 100%.
[reporter 1] Québec police have
been busy this week making arrests
in a theft that has made
international headlines
because the crime was so unique.
[reporter 2] This week,
they've been harvesting their suspects.
Among the charges,
theft, conspiracy and fraud.
[Grenier in French] I followed the
maple syrup heist from beginning to end.
I've always wanted to support
people who are in a situation
similar to mine,
because I know how hard it is.
And I understand them.
For Richard, I think this was his way
to protest against the Federation,
but I think maybe he got carried away.
[Mercier] There's fighting
in the legal system, like Angèle is doing,
and there's these guys that
want to fight in a different way.
But, I mean, it's the same fight.
They are people not afraid
to fight the machine.
[reporter] A Canadian jury
finds three men guilty
in connection to the
Great Maple Syrup Robbery of 2012.
[Grenier in French] What I can say
about this whole thing is that
the Federation managed to turn
buyers into criminals.
Here in Québec, drugs are decriminalized,
but they have criminalized maple syrup.
Which is more dangerous for people?
When you've known someone for 15 years,
you know that they are honest.
They're just trying to make a living
with maple syrup.
I find this very hard for Mr. St. Pierre.
Like us, all he wanted to do
was retire peacefully.
When all this started in 2002,
I was still hopeful for my retirement,
because we thought
we would win in five to ten years,
and then things would be sorted out.
But things didn't happen
the way we wanted them to happen.
Right now, as far as my retirement goes,
it is non-existent.
[Urbain] There is something
written on our license plates
in the province of Québec
called " Je me souviens." I remember...
Well, I remember all the effort
that my father put into this industry.
He did a hell of a good job.
In terms of working with maple syrup,
I believe that this year
is going to be the first time
where our family could live off it.
It was impossible in the '80s
to think about that.
In the past 15 years,
we have doubled our exports
and tripled its value.
And if you look at the industry which was
worth less than 100 million 20 years ago,
now it's worth half a billion
in the province of Québec alone.
What we did is, we were
the locomotive in the industry.
I have a future now,
because of the decisions
that were made back then.
Without the Federation, there would
still be maple syrup being done
because it's part of our genes.
But it wouldn't be an industry.
[Mercier]
It was always David against Goliath.
You truly are fighting the machine.
And, you know, I wouldn't make
this kind of crusade fight
if I was afraid of these kind of things.
I am going to keep fighting
to retrieve personal freedom in Québec.
Every controlled economy
in the world has always failed.
If it continues at this rate
and it does not adapt,
it only has a few years left
in it before the system crumbles.
Those people want to deal with economy
without any rules.
They say that the strong
are going to live through
and the bad ones are gonna die,
and it's too bad for them.
They don't understand
that it's because of the rules
that bankruptcy in maple syrup production
in Québec Province
is almost not existing.
With the Federation,
there's no limit where maple syrup can go.
[Urbain] I am not a mafia man.
I am an entrepreneur.
And when I talk about the future,
my eyes light up,
because I see opportunity.
Right now, there are 1,200 people
waiting to get into the system.
People want to get in
because it's profitable.
It wasn't before.
[Grenier in French]
I don't think too much about the future.
Because thinking about the future
makes me sick.
Why bankrupt people like this?
Why not let us live?
We are going to lose all of our freedom.
Everybody's angry.
And this theft renewed that discussion.
The Federation says that a theft
of this size will not happen again.
But if the division in this province
keeps escalating,
it's conceivable it could happen again.
[music playing]
Okay, where should we start?
[in French] First, you need to know...
it is a cartel.
Or we say it's like...
a communist regime.
Or a regime of terror.
Or a bit like the mafia.
No one can stop...
the Federation of Maple Syrup Producers.
They took all my syrup.
They started taking our right to speak.
The Federation owes us a lot of money.
They will turn us all into criminals.
[theme song playing]
[Simon Trepanier] It's an insult in Canada
to serve fake maple syrup on the table.
It's like if you are in France
and, instead of serving wine,
you are serving water.
Maple syrup for Québecers
is part of not only our culture,
but it's running through our veins.
I don't know what I would be doing
without maple syrup somewhere in my life.
[Carolyn Jarvis] You grow up in Canada
and maple syrup is everywhere.
The maple leaf is on our flag.
It's what our country represents.
I'd say it's almost like baseball
to Americans.
It is our national treasure.
And we keep it
in our Global Strategic Reserve.
It's like the Fort Knox of Canada.
One barrel worth about $1,800.
About 30 times the price of oil.
And if you want to work with maple syrup,
you have to deal with
the Federation of Maple Syrup Producers.
[Hans Mercier]
It became a very lucrative business.
That's when it went from
such a proud industry
to such mercenary work.
[Angèle Grenier in French] The Federation
has labeled me a "rebel of the system."
Yes, I rebel.
I fight so producers can regain
their freedom from this mafia.
[Normand Urbain in English]
They play with words like "mafia."
And, ''We don't own
our maple syrup anymore.''
And, my God, I'm gonna shed a tear.
It's sexy to sell something
when there's a controversy,
but it doesn't mean
you have all the facts.
We wanted this system
and we still want this system.
Over 80%.
[Jarvis] There is a war going on
in the maple syrup industry in Québec
between people that want a free market
and people that are very proud
of this Federation.
And it's really created this environment
for theft of maple syrup to happen.
[Julien Beauchamp-Laliberte]
August 24, 2012,
the Federation of Maple Syrup Producers
lay a complaint to the Sûreté du Québec,
the provincial police corps,
reporting a theft at the warehouse.
The crime was really unusual.
It's not about blood, it's not about hair.
It was simply about maple syrup.
It's like, if someone stole milk
from your fridge,
and you called the police and said,
"Hey, someone stole the milk
from my fridge.
Find all that milk, please."
Syrup does not have a GPS on it,
does not have any serial number,
and the worst of it is that
you can eat it.
So they build up
a special investigator team
with 250 investigators.
It was the biggest crime scene
that they ever investigated.
[camera shutter clicking]
For the first two weeks,
the main job of the police
was just to find out
which barrels were emptied
or which barrels were still full.
[Luc Briand in French]
While we were inspecting the barrels,
we noticed one had a ring of rust.
Syrup does not sweat.
Even if it's cold,
it's not like a glass of water
that leaves a ring on the table.
We started opening barrels.
They were filled with water.
[Beauchamp-Laliberte]
By the end of the investigation,
around 9,561 barrels
had been discovered stolen.
Worth more than $18 million.
It was the biggest theft ever in Québec.
Well, Canada seems to have
a bit of a sticky problem
when it comes to maple syrup.
Apparently, lots of it, really lots of it,
has been stolen
from a strategic reserve of maple syrup
in Québec.
[Jarvis] When I heard about
this maple syrup theft,
I thought, ''Are you kidding me?"
People might be less surprised
if it was $18 million worth of cocaine,
but this wasn't, it was syrup.
[announcer] Here's Carolyn Jarvis.
Good evening and welcome to 16×9.
Is it time for a rethink across the board?
The journalism that I embark on
can change people's lives
and change laws in some cases, too.
But, I mean, it's maple syrup.
My approach is always to walk up to people
and to present myself,
and ask them to tell their story to me.
Can we just ask you about your role
in the theft?
[in French] I've told everything
to my lawyer and the investigators,
so I've got nothing to say.
-Can we have a couple of words with you?
-[speaking French]
[Jarvis] There is only one version
of the truth and that's the truth.
That's what we are trying
to core down into.
What really happened here?
What was the precise chronology
of how things unfolded?
And the more I looked into it,
the more I realized
that it had all started with
the Federation of Maple Syrup Producers.
So, they call Québec
the Saudi Arabia of maple syrup,
and the Federation is essentially OPEC.
It's a legal cartel that is employing
strict, strict, strict control
with the total goal
of keeping prices stable.
There's an enforced quota
that tells producers
how much maple syrup
they can make in any season.
So, in high-production years,
any excess syrup is placed
in the Global Strategic Reserve
of maple syrup.
This is the backup maple syrup supply
for the world.
If there's a low-production year,
the syrup is released into the market.
It's all about supply and demand.
For some producers, it works really well
because it keeps the price where it's at.
But there are a lot of people
that are really angry right now in Québec
because they want a free market.
They don't want this system
that tells them
what they can and cannot do.
It doesn't work for them.
[Grenier in French] I've always
had a dream that my husband and I
would be able to retire peacefully
in our own sugar bush.
When I started with syrup production,
the Federation already existed.
Until 2000, I didn't have any issues.
Then the Federation prepared
to take power.
The Federation started
an exclusive selling agency
so that we can't sell elsewhere.
It is written
in the Federation's regulations,
the sap that runs in my maple trees
belongs to them.
I can tell you that up to 90% of producers
were against the new system.
We knew we were losing our freedom.
So there was nothing to stop me
from fighting.
It's a fight for everyone
to have the right to sell
outside of the system of Québec.
It's the Federation or freedom.
[Urbain] I don't need a black market.
I follow the rules,
I'm making ends meet
and I'm proud of what I'm doing.
I'm doing it because
I want my kids to look up to me
just like I look up to my dad.
My father was the second vice president
of the Federation.
It's people like my dad that fought hard
and risked everything
and were able to get us
to where we are today.
I remember going with my dad in the '80s
to the maple syrup conferences.
The places were always half full
and there were only people with gray hair.
Back then, everything was a free market,
but a lot of people went belly-up.
I remember the next door neighbors
cutting down all the maples.
People thought they would get more return
by cutting the trees
than by tapping the trees.
There was no real future in the industry.
THE FARMERS ARE ORGANIZING
And then the Federation started
controlling the supply of the maple syrup.
At first, a lot of people were discontent,
and then they started seeing
the prices going up.
Nowadays, you go to the conferences
and you see all of these young people.
There's actually a future.
It's a success story...
but it's not being talked about.
[newsreader] Producers like Angèle Grenier
say the Federation is a den of thieves.
[in French]
It's harassment and intimidation.
It's one legal battle after another.
I have a stack at my house.
It's like I'm in purgatory.
[Urbain] It's always
the same people that are going on TV.
[indistinct chatter]
[Urbain]
And it's easy for them to criticize.
What do you propose instead?
A free market?
Tried that, done that, failed.
Playtime is done.
At first, when police came in,
they did not have any specific suspects.
And for them, at first,
everybody could have been a suspect.
During the investigation,
over 223 witnesses were met.
By meeting one witness after another,
the police started to build up a case
that concentrates on some people.
Avik Caron was one of the owners
of the warehouse.
Before buying the warehouse,
he was convicted of a fraud
against an insurance company,
for his involvement
in a fake stealing of a car.
So he has already been involved
in fraudulent operation.
Someone from the Federation
had another theory
about who was one
of the main ringleaders of that theft.
From the start,
I suspect that the Federation
when the time came to find a scapegoat,
they said, "That's Vallières for sure!"
Because Vallières was probably
the most-known barrel roller in Québec.
On the black market,
the producers sell everything
that they produce over quota
to barrel rollers,
who then resell to exporters.
Well, it's illegal in the sense that
you have to be an authorized buyer
to buy and sell.
So you may be liable to a fine
of some sort.
And my client had been fined
over a million dollars for selling syrup,
which, of course,
benefited the Federation.
[Jarvis] You don't think about
Richard Vallières
and think about
drugs and guns and violent crime.
This is a maple syrup dude
that worked in maple syrup,
his dad had a sugar shack in the bush,
and who worked outside the rules
of this Federation.
And clearly thumbed his nose
at the Federation.
We've got a long history with that guy.
We thought maybe there's a path here,
because that guy knows how to sell
maple syrup on the black market.
There is early speculation
that the maple syrup
may have already left the province
and headed off the to US or Europe.
How do you get rid of
that much maple syrup?
How does it seep back into the system?
[St. Pierre in French]
I was the only one in New Brunswick
to start buying maple syrup
and exporting it in the US and Europe.
I was buying from big shots
like Richard Vallières,
but I have small producers
who sell to me, too.
One day, Angèle Grenier said,
"I can sell you syrup."
She was frustrated with the Federation.
I think they owed her a lot of money.
The system in Québec,
it's like...
a prostitute market.
The producers work very hard,
but it's the Federation
that is paid very nice salaries.
[in English] Just like a pimp.
[in French] The Federation says
it's a black market,
but it isn't a black market.
I have a license from Ottawa,
and in Ottawa it's a free market.
I didn't sign any contract
with this syndicate,
so I will fight until the end.
[Grenier]
Okay, now you put it all at once.
Okay. I'm going to stir it a little.
Okay, Katrina.
You'll see, it's going to turn into sugar.
-[Katrina] A trio of three.
-A trio of three.
Since I didn't want to conform
to their regulations,
they fined me $50,000.
We had several lawyers at the beginning,
but they only thought of
how much they could make.
But then we arrived at Hans Mercier,
and he really wanted to fight the battle.
[Mercier] When you go to a party
and they say,
"What kind of law do you practice?"
and you say, "Maple syrup,"
you usually get a laugh.
"Are you serious?" and I say, "Yeah."
I think the Federation started
with good intentions.
They wanted to help the producers
stabilize their income.
But, at some point,
they created this system
that became more and more unhealthy.
They've tried for years
to paint the rebels as crooks
and people who would screw the system
for financial gain,
but that's simply not true.
These are good people.
But they get hundreds of thousands
in penalties,
and in some cases, millions.
I'm the kind of guy,
when I see that, I want to change it.
One of the biggest fights we actually had
a few years back
was to say that these fines
were unconstitutional.
I won the Appeal Court decision.
Six or seven months later,
the government came back in
with a special law to bring them back.
That's how powerful the Federation is.
They do the rules. They apply the rules.
They cash in the fines.
Judge, jury and executioner.
[train horn sounds]
In material evidence
found in the warehouse,
fingerprints, footprints,
scratches on the barrels,
forensic investigators
were starting to build up a case.
[Briand in French]
The Federation's drivers
always use these specific forklifts,
because they do not leave a mark.
But the empty barrels we found
had marks on the sides.
We could see
this was caused by a forklift.
[Beauchamp-Laliberte]
The investigators had to find out
where the forklifts were rented
so they actually just went
from one renting shop to another
and see if someone rented
that special forklift.
One of the accused left his name
at one of the places.
[Jarvis] I'm a journalist.
And we're doing a story
investigating the Federation.
And I wanted to speak with you
to get your side of the story.
-[Sébastien Jutras] All right.
-Okay. We're starting.
Did you transport stolen syrup?
I transport the maple syrup,
but I don't know it's stolen.
Nobody ever said to you,
"This syrup is stolen."
Nope.
-You were just a driver?
-Yeah, that's it.
[speaking French]
[Jarvis] On the surface,
Sébastien seems like a really nice guy.
He didn't have a criminal flair to him.
Was he playing dumb? Was he in on it?
What came to light was that
he was the connector between Avik Caron...
and Richard Vallières.
[Beauchamp-Laliberte] In 2010, Avik Caron
decided to buy the warehouse
in Saint-Louis-de-Blandford.
And in 2011, the Federation came to them
and asked if they can rent some place
in the warehouse
to store maple syrup.
When Avik Caron came
and saw that maple syrup...
he found himself sitting on a goldmine.
He had no prior relation with maple syrup.
So in order to steal it
and actually make money off it,
he needed someone who can do it
on the black market.
He asked Sébastien Jutras
to find him a guy
who was in the maple syrup black market.
Sébastien Jutras knows Richard Vallières.
For Richard, selling maple syrup
on the black market,
that was familiar to him.
But he took it to the next level
by engaging with Avik.
[Grenier in French] It was a Sunday,
and I was working in the sugar bush.
And I realized that, on the road,
there was a car stopped.
[camera shutter clicking]
I was being filmed.
It was a private investigator
from the Federation.
[Mercier] The approach of
the Federation was, "Break them.
Remove any fight they have in them."
These people would go in their houses,
ask for their electricity bills,
their gas bills.
Your personal bank account, what you gave
to your wife as alimony, they didn't care.
Oversight isn't bad itself,
but personal freedoms
should be the basis of it.
At some point,
some of them started saying,
"I thought I lived in a free country.
This has to stop."
People were refusing inspection.
[indistinct chatter]
[Mercier] One time,
there was a mob of 50 people
waiting for an inspector, and says,
"You better turn back or we'll make you.
You're not getting in that sugar bush."
[in French] You're going to
wake up somewhere
and you're going to get straightened out.
[Mercier] I would say
that was a turning point.
That's when the rebel movement
started to gain momentum.
[in French] We want to break up
this monopoly, the UPA.
[Mercier] Now you have producers
that are trying to take this fight
all the way up to the Supreme Court.
This is gonna be fighting fire with fire.
[indistinct chatter]
[Urbain in French] A photo with Granddad.
[in English] When my father
was the regional president,
he had a lot of other people to convince
to get on board with the system.
[speaking French]
[in English] Sometimes you get threats.
People would like to continue the way
they were doing before.
Sometimes, it gets nasty.
I remember, in 2000,
we were tapping the trees.
I look up to the sugar shack.
I saw a lot of smoke.
I don't remember how I got
my snow shoes off, and I ran,
and arrived at the door
and it was too late.
Our operation was on fire.
We were the first of three.
THE MAPLE SYRUP MAFIA HIT
FEDERATION PRESIDENT'S SUGAR SHACK BURNS
I can't accuse anyone, but I can say this.
FIRE AT PIERRE LEMIEUX'S SUGAR SHACK
IS OF CRIMINAL ORIGIN
Three fires in two weeks.
All of those three happened to be
regional presidents of the Federation.
Coincidence?
It was the first time I saw my father cry.
What did my father do to deserve this?
Because we get into an assembly and we
democratically vote to do certain things,
it gives the right to go
to these extremes?
The Madrid is a pit stop, just beside
Highway 20 here in Québec.
In June 2011, a meeting occurred between
Avik Caron, Sébastien Jutras
and Richard Vallières.
The team decided that Avik Caron's role
was to steal the syrup
and Richard Vallières' role was to
transport it, transform it and sell it.
At that point, they actually agreed
to move on with the theft.
[Jarvis] This was really well coordinated.
With a whole enterprise of people.
[Beauchamp-Laliberte] Barrels were lifted
from the warehouse, put into trucks,
and then they'd have to introduce
new fake barrels.
Sébastien Jutras brought 104 barrels
that were taken from a legitimate company.
[Jarvis] Every single barrel
looks exactly the same.
They had to get the exact same paint color
to make sure that they were identical.
The same shade of blue,
and the right sticker on it
with a Federation stamp that labels them
as being Federation barrels
so that nothing looked off.
[Beauchamp-Laliberte] And then they would
move the barrels into a warehouse
rented by Richard Vallières.
There, the syrup needed to be transferred
from the original Federation barrels
to other containers.
[Jarvis] Some say they took those barrels
to a creek
and then put water in on the spot.
[Beauchamp-Laliberte]
The barrels were transported back
to the original warehouse.
And then Richard Vallières sells the syrup
to Étienne St. Pierre,
who transports to the United States,
Germany and Japan.
This was going on
from the year 2011 up to 2012.
[ship horn blowing]
[Jarvis] Richard Vallières
was over his head.
I think he should have done his research.
I think he should have looked into who
he was about to start doing business with
under the table.
If anybody had looked into Avik,
they might have thought twice
about doing business with him.
Caron is not a man who is involved
with maple syrup.
He's got no history
in the maple syrup industry.
This was somebody with a criminal past.
There were allegations that were
quite serious. Mafia connections.
People started to feel uncomfortable
with what was going on.
But they were in it so deep,
they couldn't stop.
They knew that their numbers
could be traced,
so they got burner cell phones.
You read those text messages,
and it shows the increasing concern
and anxiety about what was going on.
[cell phone chiming]
[reporter] Police are investigating a huge
maple syrup heist outside Montreal.
Thousands of gallons of maple syrup
were taken from a warehouse.
[cell phone chiming]
[Jarvis] Things all of a sudden
started escalating, becoming more scary.
Richard claims that
Avik Caron said to him,
"I know where you live."
And that if he spoke out,
that he would get shot in the head.
It was in their best interest
not to say anything,
or else they were going to go to jail
for some serious time.
[interrogator in French] So you can
just sit in the back, Sébastien.
Have you had any promises
or threats from anyone for doing this?
-No promises.
-Okay.
Obviously, they told me
it wouldn't hurt my cause,
but no promises.
That's a fact. It's called collaboration
in the investigation.
[Jutras] Avik Caron.
I knew people who sold syrup
because I was shipping syrup.
[interrogator] Okay.
So he told me, I have some syrup to sell.
I didn't know where it came from.
He asked, "Could you give me
your guy's number?"
So I gave him Richard Vallières' number.
Then I saw the barrels.
1+1=2.
I understood.
Because they were making you deliver
syrup elsewhere?
[interrogator] Okay.
I understood what was going on.
Sébastien Jutras testified
against Avik Caron and Richard Vallières.
But he also testified
against Étienne St. Pierre.
In order to make money,
the thieves needed to sell the maple syrup
to an exporter.
Étienne St. Pierre
was outside of the main theft.
But moving and selling maple syrup
produced in Québec was illegal.
[St. Pierre in French]
They seized everything, all my syrup.
Then they seized
all of the business documents.
They closed my bank accounts.
They said I plotted, but I never plotted.
Richard just called me
and he asked me if I wanted syrup.
And I said yes.
The police told me
it was all regarding the theft,
but it wasn't just for the theft.
I think it was to stop my business.
The Federation doesn't like it
when anybody else does business.
For them, it's all about
controlling the syrup. 100%.
[reporter 1] Québec police have
been busy this week making arrests
in a theft that has made
international headlines
because the crime was so unique.
[reporter 2] This week,
they've been harvesting their suspects.
Among the charges,
theft, conspiracy and fraud.
[Grenier in French] I followed the
maple syrup heist from beginning to end.
I've always wanted to support
people who are in a situation
similar to mine,
because I know how hard it is.
And I understand them.
For Richard, I think this was his way
to protest against the Federation,
but I think maybe he got carried away.
[Mercier] There's fighting
in the legal system, like Angèle is doing,
and there's these guys that
want to fight in a different way.
But, I mean, it's the same fight.
They are people not afraid
to fight the machine.
[reporter] A Canadian jury
finds three men guilty
in connection to the
Great Maple Syrup Robbery of 2012.
[Grenier in French] What I can say
about this whole thing is that
the Federation managed to turn
buyers into criminals.
Here in Québec, drugs are decriminalized,
but they have criminalized maple syrup.
Which is more dangerous for people?
When you've known someone for 15 years,
you know that they are honest.
They're just trying to make a living
with maple syrup.
I find this very hard for Mr. St. Pierre.
Like us, all he wanted to do
was retire peacefully.
When all this started in 2002,
I was still hopeful for my retirement,
because we thought
we would win in five to ten years,
and then things would be sorted out.
But things didn't happen
the way we wanted them to happen.
Right now, as far as my retirement goes,
it is non-existent.
[Urbain] There is something
written on our license plates
in the province of Québec
called " Je me souviens." I remember...
Well, I remember all the effort
that my father put into this industry.
He did a hell of a good job.
In terms of working with maple syrup,
I believe that this year
is going to be the first time
where our family could live off it.
It was impossible in the '80s
to think about that.
In the past 15 years,
we have doubled our exports
and tripled its value.
And if you look at the industry which was
worth less than 100 million 20 years ago,
now it's worth half a billion
in the province of Québec alone.
What we did is, we were
the locomotive in the industry.
I have a future now,
because of the decisions
that were made back then.
Without the Federation, there would
still be maple syrup being done
because it's part of our genes.
But it wouldn't be an industry.
[Mercier]
It was always David against Goliath.
You truly are fighting the machine.
And, you know, I wouldn't make
this kind of crusade fight
if I was afraid of these kind of things.
I am going to keep fighting
to retrieve personal freedom in Québec.
Every controlled economy
in the world has always failed.
If it continues at this rate
and it does not adapt,
it only has a few years left
in it before the system crumbles.
Those people want to deal with economy
without any rules.
They say that the strong
are going to live through
and the bad ones are gonna die,
and it's too bad for them.
They don't understand
that it's because of the rules
that bankruptcy in maple syrup production
in Québec Province
is almost not existing.
With the Federation,
there's no limit where maple syrup can go.
[Urbain] I am not a mafia man.
I am an entrepreneur.
And when I talk about the future,
my eyes light up,
because I see opportunity.
Right now, there are 1,200 people
waiting to get into the system.
People want to get in
because it's profitable.
It wasn't before.
[Grenier in French]
I don't think too much about the future.
Because thinking about the future
makes me sick.
Why bankrupt people like this?
Why not let us live?
We are going to lose all of our freedom.
Everybody's angry.
And this theft renewed that discussion.
The Federation says that a theft
of this size will not happen again.
But if the division in this province
keeps escalating,
it's conceivable it could happen again.
[music playing]