The Great Canadian Syrup Heist

Summary

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Podcast Summary: Scams, Money, & Murder

Episode: The Great Canadian Syrup Heist
Date: May 13, 2026
Hosts: Sabrina Dianna Roga & Corinne Vienne (Crimes of Deception, a Crime House Original)

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Overview:

This episode unpacks the notorious Great Canadian Maple Syrup Heist, the bizarre and audacious 2011-2012 theft of over $18 million CAD worth of maple syrup from Canada’s strategic syrup reserve in Quebec. Sabrina and Corinne explore not only the details of the heist, but also the economic, cultural, and criminal undercurrents that made such a sticky crime possible – blending true-crime investigation with humor and genuine curiosity about the world of “liquid gold.”

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Discovery of the Heist

Setting the Scene:

• The episode launches with an accountant, Michel Gavreau, arriving at a Quebec warehouse in July 2012 for a routine audit.
• “He notices the warehouse smells not like syrup but ‘more like a whiff of stale beer in the air.’” (Corinne, 04:43)
• As Michel climbs the barrels, one shifts underfoot. A tap—hollow. Barrel after barrel: empty.
• Shock: $18.7 million CAD in syrup is missing.

  “It feels like plankton has stolen the Krabby Patty recipe, doesn’t it?”
  — Sabrina (06:39)

2. The Value and Culture of Maple Syrup

• Maple syrup is far from a trivial agricultural product; it’s a billion-dollar industry, tightly regulated in Quebec (supplies ~70% of the world market, 18–20M gallons/year).
• “It takes between 30–50 gallons of sap to create one gallon of maple syrup.”
  — Corinne (09:27)
• The Federation of Quebec Maple Syrup Producers (“the Federation”) effectively acts as a cartel—controlling production, sales, and pricing.

  “It makes me mad...like, I’m kind of glad they got robbed. But it’s—they got robbed after they robbed others.”
  — Corinne (11:45)

3. Black Market Syrup and Barrel Rollers

• Many producers, frustrated by the Federation’s restrictions, sell excess syrup on the black market (“barrel rolling”), often earning up to 50% more per barrel.

  “They call themselves barrel rollers because they roll barrels of syrup to the global market, mostly to the US.”
  — Sabrina (14:25)

• Both hosts express gleeful curiosity at black-market syrup:

  “If I knew I could buy black market syrup, I would—this whole time.”
  — Corinne (16:46)

4. The Heist’s Mastermind: Richard Valliere

• Richard came from a maple family, long resentful of the Federation’s controls.
• “He was like a maple syrup Robin Hood.”
  — Sabrina (17:49)
• Having previously faced a $1.8 million fine for black market sales, Richard is introduced to Avik Caron (whose wife co-owns a warehouse rented by the Federation) and trucker Sebastian Jutra.

5. The Plan and the Execution

• The crew consists of:
  • Avik: The insider, with access
  • Sebastian: The transportation (truck driver)
  • Richard: Connection to black market buyers
• Execution:
  • They siphon syrup out of barrels, refill with water, and return them (like “siphoning gas out of a vehicle”—Corinne, 25:09).
  • Stolen syrup is taken to Richard’s father’s sugar shack to be sold onward, often through a New Brunswick “barrel roller” named Etienne St. Pierre.
• Over about a year, they stole nearly 3,000 tons worth over $18 million CAD.

6. The Sloppy Slip-Up

• Success breeds overconfidence:
  • Crew leaves sticky residue, returns dirty or even empty barrels, grows their circle of conspirators (over a dozen at peak).
  • “They’re getting a little sloppy...overconfidence will come to bite you.”
    — Corinne (28:19)
• Ultimately, Michel’s audit exposes the hollow barrels.

7. Investigation and Downfall

• Provincial police quickly deduce it’s an inside job.
• Raiding Etienne’s warehouse in New Brunswick (after a warrant kerfuffle and surreal moment where Etienne’s assistant pretends to “wipe her ass” with a Quebec search warrant), they uncover $1M in syrup and the crew’s names.

  “She flips the bird to the cops and...pretended to wipe her ass with the search warrant. Amazing. Love her.”
  — Sabrina (32:24)

• 16 arrests are made, including Richard, Sebastian, Avik, Etienne, and Richard’s father.

8. The Trials and Sentences

• Everyone turns on each other (“Help yourself before you backstab everyone...”).
• Richard claims he was forced at gunpoint—"the drama; he was claiming he was terrified, forced to commit these crimes, or else…it was a matter of life or death," but the court doesn’t buy it. (Sabrina, 37:10)
• Various sentences:
  • Richard: 8 years prison, $9M fine (bounced between appeal and Supreme Court)

    “Playing with his emotions...they’re like, oh, we’re increasing it [the fine] by $8 million again.” — Corinne (41:05)

  • Avik: 5 years, $1.2M fine
  • Etienne: $1.3M fine
  • Sebastian: 8 months
  • Richard’s father: $10K fine

9. The Federation’s Fate and Ongoing Black Market

• The Federation suffered public embarrassment and financial loss, but, protected by insurance, reimbursed producers and faced no real penalties.
• Security at warehouses is increased, but black market syrup sales persist.

  “Just because they caught these barrel rollers does not mean they put an end to black market maple syrup dealings. No, that is still very prominent today.”
  — Corinne (44:16)

• Only a fraction of stolen syrup was ever recovered; much is likely in US stores (and our breakfast plates).

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Notable Quotes & Moments

• On the Heist’s Surrealism:

  “It’s Pink Panther meets Wes Anderson meets Ocean’s Eleven.”
  — Sabrina (07:02)

• On the Federation as Cartel:

  “It’s kind of more of like a maple syrup cartel...a legal government approved cartel.”
  — Sabrina (11:42)

• Sympathy for the Thieves:

  “It has some vigilante energy to it, for sure...I was rooting for the thieves the entire time.”
  — Corinne & Sabrina (42:20–43:06)

• On Black Market Ethics:

  “Stealing from thieves is not stealing, which I agree with.”
  — Sebastian’s trial testimony, related by Sabrina (38:09)

• On the Systemic Problem:

  “Not every crime scene needs to have a body...when it comes to, like, true crime, we never really give, like, a murder. You think of murder, but this is one where I’m glad no one was harmed.”
  — Sabrina (42:33)

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Important Timestamps

• [03:36]: Discovery of the missing syrup by Michel
• [06:39]: Extent of the theft revealed—$18.7M CAD missing
• [13:45]: Explanation of the Federation’s cartel-like operations
• [14:25]: The black market and “barrel rollers”
• [17:06]: Introduction to Richard Valliere and his vendetta
• [24:50]: The nuts and bolts of the heist plan
• [28:19]: The crew’s overconfidence and growing sloppiness
• [30:50]: The audit uncovers the crime
• [32:24]: Search warrant drama at Etienne’s warehouse
• [35:59]: Arrests and the sticky downfall
• [37:10]: Richard’s failed courtroom defense
• [41:05]: Legal reversals and final fines
• [44:16]: The undying black market and legacy of the heist

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Final Reflections

• Most of the syrup was never recovered, leading to the real possibility that a significant chunk ended up in US supply chains and retail outlets.
• The heist remains legendary both for its comedic elements (forklift chases, maple-flavored revenge, truck stops with dinosaurs) and for highlighting the intense control and real-world consequences of agricultural regulation.
• Both hosts reflect positively on the thieves’ motivations, framing them as antiheroes in a system rigged by the Federation, and encourage listeners to consider the true meaning of economic justice in regulated markets.

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Further Viewing:

• Dirty Money (Netflix) — Episode on the syrup heist
• Sticky (Amazon, 2024) — Fictionalized retelling

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Transcript

[Vanessa]

Hi listeners, it's Vanessa. Before we get into today's episode, I want to tell you about another show I think you'll love. Hidden history with Dr. Harini Bhat. Every Monday, Dr. Bhat goes where history gets mysterious. Vanished civilizations, doomsday prophecies, paranormal phenomena and events that science still can't fully explain. Dr. Bot treats these moments like open case files. Not myths, not superstition, just incomplete explanations waiting for a closer look. Hidden History drops every Monday. Follow now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you listen, so you never miss a mystery.

[Sabrina Dianna Roga]

This is Crime House. They thought it was the perfect crime involving forklifts, fake barrels and more maple syrup than you could ever imagine.

[Corinne Vienne]

A plan so clever it couldn't possibly fail.

[Sabrina Dianna Roga]

Until it did. Spectacularly.

[Corinne Vienne]

Welcome to Crimes of Deception.

[Sabrina Dianna Roga]

I'm Sabrina deannaroga.

[Corinne Vienne]

I'm Corinne Viann.

[Sabrina Dianna Roga]

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.

[Corinne Vienne]

Subscribe now and step inside the world of crimes of the Case of the

[Sabrina Dianna Roga]

Maple Syrup Heist starts now. Welcome to Crimes of Deception, a Crime House original powered by Pave Studios. We are your hosts Sabrina Dianna Roga and Corinne Vien.

[Corinne Vienne]

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.

[Sabrina Dianna Roga]

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 listening, 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. Life.

[Corinne Vienne]

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.

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[Corinne Vienne]

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 30, 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 donning 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 the 16,000 barrels of maple syrup by hand.

[Sabrina Dianna Roga]

That is a lot.

[Corinne Vienne]

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. The space is a sea of metal barrels, row after row of perfectly symmetrical rows disappearing into the distance. Each one weighs more than £600, and Michel has a lot of work ahead of him. So he gets started, carefully stepping from barrel to barrel, climbing over them 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. Hmm. 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. 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?

[Sabrina Dianna Roga]

I feel like we're in the Pink Panther movie today.

[Corinne Vienne]

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.

[Sabrina Dianna Roga]

$18.7 million.

[Corinne Vienne]

Expensive.

[Sabrina Dianna Roga]

That's a lot of syrup and a lot of money. Say, breakfast emergency. I really do feel like this is a Pink Panther meets Wes Anderson meets Ocean's Eleven film.

[Corinne Vienne]

Oh, totally.

[Sabrina Dianna Roga]

And story like, how in the world did someone steal $18.7 million worth of maple syrup and not get caught?

[Corinne Vienne]

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.

[Sabrina Dianna Roga]

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 you.

[Corinne Vienne]

And so many.

[Sabrina Dianna Roga]

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.

[Corinne Vienne]

We're getting into the facts.

[Sabrina Dianna Roga]

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 lather on our pancakes. And if your buddy, the elf from Elf on our pasta, on your Brussels

[Corinne Vienne]

sprouts, in your coffee, in your ice cream.

[Sabrina Dianna Roga]

Yeah.

[Corinne Vienne]

In your oatmeal, anywhere. Just take a shot of it.

[Sabrina Dianna Roga]

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.

[Corinne Vienne]

Kind of ironic since the settlers came into the northeast and, like, basically knocked down every single tree here.

[Sabrina Dianna Roga]

But maple syrup is still very prominent. And today the global maple syrup market is worth roughly 1.6 to $2.7 billion per year. Canada produces about 70% of the world's maple syrup supply, producing roughly 18 to 20 million gallons of it per year.

[Corinne Vienne]

Oh, my God.

[Sabrina Dianna Roga]

And then 90% of that 70% comes from Quebec.

[Corinne Vienne]

Wait, what was 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.

[Sabrina Dianna Roga]

You know that detail.

[Corinne Vienne]

That's a lot that you have to collect.

[Sabrina Dianna Roga]

That was not in the script. That is. Corrine just knows that off the top

[Corinne Vienne]

of her head, it's 30. But for some. For some sugar bushes, it's a little bit more.

[Sabrina Dianna Roga]

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,

[Corinne Vienne]

some mafia energy, I believe it, which is just so. Like, this feels like a cartoon or it's like it's. I'm just picturing people, like, in their flannels and their beads 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's 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 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 of Quebec. Their goal was to control supply, stabilize prices, and also protect the farmers from those unpredictable harvests. On paper, that sounds great, right?

[Sabrina Dianna Roga]

You're like, yeah, in theory, sure. Yeah.

[Corinne Vienne]

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,

[Sabrina Dianna Roga]

but a legal government approved cartel.

[Corinne Vienne]

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.

[Sabrina Dianna Roga]

Yeah.

[Corinne Vienne]

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.

[Sabrina Dianna Roga]

Yeah.

[Corinne Vienne]

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

[Sabrina Dianna Roga]

syrup, which we love.

[Corinne Vienne]

They have these things everywhere. Isn't Wisconsin. Don't they have like a cheese reserve?

[Sabrina Dianna Roga]

I thought you were gonna say more maple syrup facts. And I was like, I don't know, girl.

[Corinne Vienne]

Wisconsin is a cheese reserve.

[Sabrina Dianna Roga]

Yeah, they're cheese town.

[Corinne Vienne]

Upstate New York has like a whole seed bank in case the world ends.

[Sabrina Dianna Roga]

Right. So it's good to have the reserves.

[Corinne Vienne]

Yes, yes.

[Sabrina Dianna Roga]

Yeah. But they're controlling how much the farmers can actually sell and. And then like stockpiling and holding it onto it.

[Corinne Vienne]

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.

[Sabrina Dianna Roga]

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.

[Corinne Vienne]

Yep.

[Sabrina Dianna Roga]

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.

[Corinne Vienne]

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, so are you capped? Like, you can't make up for the previous season because you can't sell or make more if you have more.

[Sabrina Dianna Roga]

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.

[Corinne Vienne]

Yeah.

[Sabrina Dianna Roga]

That there is a black market maple syrup underworld.

[Corinne Vienne]

Like, where do you buy it? Like, where is the.

[Sabrina Dianna Roga]

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 global market, mostly to the US which means that you might be consuming black market maple syrup, which I think is the coolest thing ever. Like, if I. I'm going to present my maple syrup at breakfasts and be

[Corinne Vienne]

like, this is from the black market black market.

[Sabrina Dianna Roga]

But they can bring in sometimes upwards of 50% 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. What they did to your family, you're lucky to make it out alive. Streaming on Peacock. These men are going to come after me. Taking them out. It's my only chance. Put a bullet in her head. From the co creator of Ozark.

[Vanessa]

Looks like a family was running drugs execution style.

[Sabrina Dianna Roga]

Killing is rare for the Keys. Any leads on who they might have been running for?

[Vanessa]

The cartel killed my family.

[Sabrina Dianna Roga]

I'm gonna kill them.

[Corinne Vienne]

All of them.

[Sabrina Dianna Roga]

MIA Streaming now only on Peacock.

[Katie Ring]

Think about some of the cases that defined true crime in America. Ted Bundy, Jeffrey Dahme. The kidnapping of Elizabeth Smart.

[Sabrina Dianna Roga]

The Karen retrial.

[Katie Ring]

Some crime cases are so shocking, they don't just make headlines, they forever change a country. I'm Katie Ring, host of America's most Infamous Crimes. Each week I take on one of the most notorious criminal cases, whether it's unfolding now or etched into American history, revealing not just what happened, but how it forever changed our society. Serial killers who terrorize cities. Unsolved mysteries that kept detectives up at night. And investigations that changed the way we think about justice. Each case unfolds across multiple episodes, released every Tuesday through Thursday, from the first sign that something was wrong to the moment the truth came out or didn't. These are the stories behind the headlines. Listen to and follow America's most infamous crimes available now wherever you get your podcasts.

[Corinne Vienne]

This feels like a prohibition era that I would so participate in, too. Like, if I knew I could buy black market syrup, I would be this whole time.

[Sabrina Dianna Roga]

Yeah, you'd be a barrel roller, right? Yeah.

[Corinne Vienne]

I don't know that I'd be rolling the barrels, but I think I'd be selling them. I'd be a customer.

[Sabrina Dianna Roga]

Oh, you just buy them? Yeah, yeah. Okay.

[Corinne Vienne]

I'd support them making more for their season. I agree.

[Sabrina Dianna Roga]

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 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, like, 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.

[Corinne Vienne]

I like that you said stick it too. I feel like there's so many puns that, like, maybe unintentional, for sure.

[Sabrina Dianna Roga]

He started buying syrup directly from producers and reselling it to buyers outside of the federation system, aka the black market.

[Corinne Vienne]

And by 2011, when Richard was in his 30s, he. 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 outside of their system. The Federation even seized his house.

[Sabrina Dianna Roga]

Damn.

[Corinne Vienne]

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. 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.

[Sabrina Dianna Roga]

I want to go to the truck stop or rest stop. How fun.

[Corinne Vienne]

This is so fun. Yeah. And under the watchful eyes of these stegosaurus and ferocious T. Rexes over here, Richard meets Sebastian and his host friend who was a guy named Avique Caron. Avique 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. Avi has no experience in the maple

[Sabrina Dianna Roga]

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, Avique.

[Corinne Vienne]

How can you say no in front of a stegosaurus?

[Sabrina Dianna Roga]

How could you say no? But more than the fact that Avique 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 Avique have access to maple syrup if the production this year was bad?

[Corinne Vienne]

It reminds me a bit of the sommelier wine heist situation. Or character, I guess.

[Sabrina Dianna Roga]

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 is just meeting for the first time saying he can sell a ton of maple syrup at a cheap rate?

[Corinne Vienne]

Sounds too good to be true.

[Sabrina Dianna Roga]

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.

[Corinne Vienne]

Right?

[Sabrina Dianna Roga]

Operation Sting, you know? But Avique promises he's legit. And that's when he reveals his source of maple syrup, the own federation's reserve Stockpile. That's right. Avique 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?

[Corinne Vienne]

It kind of feels like stealing your own syrup back.

[Sabrina Dianna Roga]

Exactly.

[Corinne Vienne]

In a way sweet and 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 the sunny skies in 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?

[Sabrina Dianna Roga]

I wish I had a mustache right now to like rub and curl some wax for it.

[Corinne Vienne]

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 its global stockpile.

[Sabrina Dianna Roga]

How convenient.

[Corinne Vienne]

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 Avique'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 pickin. 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 benefits, a huge perk. Yeah, yeah. So the three men talk it over and they decide, let's go for it. All they have to do is make a plan.

[Sabrina Dianna Roga]

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 Ocean's Eleven 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 COVID of night. So starting in August 2011, Richard, Sebastian, and Avique 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 Rashard is RV he expresses concern about the night guard. How do we get around him? AC Avique says, don't worry, the night guard is in on it too. So Avique 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 a small amount. 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'. Approuve.

[Corinne Vienne]

J approuve. Well, he's stealing his circ back.

[Sabrina Dianna Roga]

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.

[Corinne Vienne]

That's so crazy. Like siphoning gas out of a vehicle.

[Sabrina Dianna Roga]

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.

[Corinne Vienne]

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 that's done. It's stolen.

[Sabrina Dianna Roga]

You're risking going back twice in, like, a night.

[Corinne Vienne]

Right.

[Sabrina Dianna Roga]

Which means that it's clearly so unguarded.

[Corinne Vienne]

Totally.

[Sabrina Dianna Roga]

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.

[Corinne Vienne]

Dang. Got some, like, crazy success with stealing maple syrup.

[Sabrina Dianna Roga]

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.

[Corinne Vienne]

Seth Rogen is the truck driver. Let's cast it now.

[Sabrina Dianna Roga]

Let's just make this.

[Corinne Vienne]

Okay.

[Sabrina Dianna Roga]

We'll be back. We're gonna go write a movie.

[Corinne Vienne]

Okay. So now they're Stealing the syrup. That is working. They're replacing it. Nothing seems to be happening in terms of them being caught. They now 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 St. 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. 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.

[Sabrina Dianna Roga]

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 $200,000 in cash from a buyer in a shoebox that is just so crazy. Another time, he picks up a plastic bag containing $100,000 just of bills. They are rolling in the Benjamins. Or except in this case, they're the Bordens, because that's Canada's eighth Prime minister, Sir Robert Borden, and he's on the money.

[Corinne Vienne]

Do you think they drink the syrup? You know how people say, like, don't get high on your own supply?

[Sabrina Dianna Roga]

Doesn't apply 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 other alleged 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, like, Richard's dad, but then they start to bring more people in on it. And now at this point, like, over a dozen men know about it.

[Corinne Vienne]

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. 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 so far no one's noticed. Yeah, right. So now there are 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

[Sabrina Dianna Roga]

a bit careless with their barrels.

[Corinne Vienne]

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, stealing from the Federation. The accountant from the beginning of this episode, Michel Gavreau, shows up to do his audit at the warehouse. And this is when he ends up almost falling from the stack of barrels and discovers that a bunch of them are empty.

[Sabrina Dianna Roga]

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 in

[Corinne Vienne]

like 14,375, 14,370, like wobbling on top

[Sabrina Dianna Roga]

of an empty barrel, scared to fall into the sticky warehouse floor.

[Corinne Vienne]

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.

[Sabrina Dianna Roga]

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 that this is not just like a one off, casual random theft. Like this is such a massive scale that this like was more elaborate.

[Corinne Vienne]

And although it only started off with three guys, which is very impressive, but

[Sabrina Dianna Roga]

the amount they're like, it has to have. Like, this didn't happen, like, overnight, you know?

[Corinne Vienne]

Oh, yes.

[Sabrina Dianna Roga]

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 St 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, Julien Bosset, 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.

[Corinne Vienne]

This is a movie. Yeah, this is absolutely. But this is real comedy.

[Sabrina Dianna Roga]

I know.

[Corinne Vienne]

Sometimes I'm cocaine bear, but successful.

[Hannah Saroti]

If you like your true crime, like

[Corinne Vienne]

you like your coffee, Red Handed is the podcast for you.

[Hannah Saroti]

It's dark, intense, and might just keep you up all night. I'm Hannah. I'm Saroti. And every week on Red Handed, we break down a different fascinating case.

[Corinne Vienne]

From the most recent US Trials everyone

[Hannah Saroti]

is obsessing over, like Brendan Banfield, Karen Reid, and Ellen Greenberg, to the most unbelievable stories from around the world. There's nothing we love more than digging into every detail of the cases we cover, getting beyond a basic analysis and cutting to the heart of the story. Red handed has over 400 episodes ready

[Corinne Vienne]

to binge right now.

[Hannah Saroti]

Plus, be sure to check out our weekly sister show shorthand, where we unpack everything from the Black death to Area 51. If you're looking for smart, detailed true

[Corinne Vienne]

crime with personality, check out Red Handed wherever you get your podcasts.

[Sabrina Dianna Roga]

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 to 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. I don't know why they didn't use the 12 hours to, like, move some of it, but maybe it was just too much, I don't know.

[Corinne Vienne]

Or like, were they. Were some people still waiting there watching?

[Sabrina Dianna Roga]

Yeah. Either way, for the evidence they did discover.

[Corinne Vienne]

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

[Sabrina Dianna Roga]

search the truck anyway.

[Corinne Vienne]

See, they could have used me. Some lawyers out there being like, that's not how it works.

[Sabrina Dianna Roga]

That's not how it works. Yeah.

[Corinne Vienne]

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, Avique, everybody.

[Sabrina Dianna Roga]

Which I'm so sad. Like, I want them to get away.

[Corinne Vienne]

Me too. Like just like crack open the sewer gate and they go down, disappear. In December of 2012, the cops arrest all three of them. Richard and Navik 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

[Sabrina Dianna Roga]

sentence, which I'm not surprised. I think that's common.

[Corinne Vienne]

It is. There's always someone.

[Sabrina Dianna Roga]

Yeah, they turn on one another.

[Corinne Vienne]

In total, there are 16 arrests involved in this heist. 16 people arrested.

[Sabrina Dianna Roga]

Wow.

[Corinne Vienne]

That included Etienne St. Pierre, who was charged with fraud for buying stolen syrup from Avique and redistributing it. And also this one makes me sad. Richard's dad, 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.

[Sabrina Dianna Roga]

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 Valliere goes to trial. And at this point in the story, it becomes very clear that everyone involved in the highest inn 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 on first.

[Corinne Vienne]

Help yourself before you help others. Yeah, help yourself before you backstab everyone or burn everyone else.

[Sabrina Dianna Roga]

Backstab everyone before they backstab you.

[Corinne Vienne]

Yeah, that's the one.

[Sabrina Dianna Roga]

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.

[Corinne Vienne]

Oh, my gosh.

[Sabrina Dianna Roga]

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.

[Corinne Vienne]

Also, like, why would Avi bring in a third party into a warehouse that he already has access to, owns, doesn't need other witnesses. That makes no sense.

[Sabrina Dianna Roga]

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. Like, no, he has a record and a history of selling on the black market. A big theme at the 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.

[Corinne Vienne]

I agree with that too. Meanwhile, Avique 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, Avi 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 Avique 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.

[Sabrina Dianna Roga]

They didn't have enough evidence.

[Corinne Vienne]

Totally new information.

[Sabrina Dianna Roga]

Right?

[Corinne Vienne]

And then Avique 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 Avi had to be restrained.

[Sabrina Dianna Roga]

So when he realized the jig was up that he wasn't going to 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 for their various roles in the scheme. Etienne was fined $1.3 million 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. Best sentencing, he had to pay around $10,000. Sebastian, the truck driver, served eight months in prison for transporting the swollen syrup. Avique, whose wife co owned the warehouse they robbed, got five years and had to pay a $1.2 million fine. Then, like you said, after the sentencing, Avi 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, no, no. I take it all back. I demand a trial.

[Corinne Vienne]

Yeah, just say whatever you can to try to get away with it.

[Sabrina Dianna Roga]

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 a visual person.

[Corinne Vienne]

He was the last person to come

[Sabrina Dianna Roga]

in, approached him, right?

[Corinne Vienne]

Yeah, he was the final party.

[Sabrina Dianna Roga]

He wasn't the one with the idea, but I think he was the one

[Corinne Vienne]

with the idea, the connections, power.

[Sabrina Dianna Roga]

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

[Corinne Vienne]

and a $9 million fine.

[Sabrina Dianna Roga]

$9 billion.

[Corinne Vienne]

Yeah. It did get reduced to 1 million on appeal, which is still crazy. It's still a lot.

[Sabrina Dianna Roga]

But then Canada's Supreme Court overturned that, and they were like, actually, no, you are responsible for the full $9 million.

[Corinne Vienne]

Dang. Playing with his emotions. Can you imagine? You, like, go in thinking that they're gonna 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.

[Sabrina Dianna Roga]

And what of the Federation, you may ask? This legal mafia in Canada. In Canada faced no real consequences.

[Corinne Vienne]

Sorry.

[Sabrina Dianna Roga]

Yeah, sorry.

[Corinne Vienne]

Sorry. What?

[Sabrina Dianna Roga]

Aside from public embarrassment and the millions of dollars of maple syrup that was stolen, they faced no real consequences.

[Corinne Vienne]

Canada, you're forgiven for giving us heated rivalry.

[Sabrina Dianna Roga]

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.

[Corinne Vienne]

Yes.

[Sabrina Dianna Roga]

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 manage the control over the maple syrup supply.

[Corinne Vienne]

It has some vigilante energy to it, for sure. 100.

[Sabrina Dianna Roga]

I was rooting for the thieves the entire time.

[Corinne Vienne]

Me, too. Which is, like, it's tough. It's. It's technically a crime, but it's like, where. Which crime happened first? Was the Federation the first crime? Kind of seems like it was.

[Sabrina Dianna Roga]

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

[Corinne Vienne]

give, Like, a murder.

[Sabrina Dianna Roga]

You think of murder, but this is. This is one where I'm glad no one was harmed. And I was full on on this, on the side of the thieves rooting for them.

[Corinne Vienne]

Yeah, me too. I think I said it in the first 30 seconds of recording.

[Sabrina Dianna Roga]

You heard maple syrup and corruption. You're like, whoever's doing good for maple syrup, I'm on their side.

[Corinne Vienne]

Yeah. They're not throwing the syrup away. They're giving it to the people.

[Sabrina Dianna Roga]

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.

[Corinne Vienne]

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, that is still very prominent today. But those barrel rollers just know that they cannot steal from the Federation directly,

[Sabrina Dianna Roga]

which, in a way, does mean that we could be consuming black market maple syrup without knowing it.

[Corinne Vienne]

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?

[Sabrina Dianna Roga]

I'm sure that exists too. Yeah.

[Corinne Vienne]

Can you just say you didn't have as much syrup that year, but they

[Sabrina Dianna Roga]

control the sales of it too. So then you would have to sell your over production on the black market, which I encourage. Do it.

[Corinne Vienne]

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.

[Sabrina Dianna Roga]

Corinne is basically a barrel roller.

[Corinne Vienne]

Now. I feel passionate about this. I think this is the one crime I could get in on.

[Sabrina Dianna Roga]

You're going to start a consulting business? It's just how to sell maple syrup on black market.

[Corinne Vienne]

The rules are I have to taste test the syrup first. You have to mine and dine me with your syrup.

[Sabrina Dianna Roga]

Okay. That's a good deal.

[Corinne Vienne]

Anyway, actually, that's how you get paid. Yeah.

[Sabrina Dianna Roga]

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?

[Corinne Vienne]

It's in all of our bellies because

[Sabrina Dianna Roga]

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 1/7 of it was actually recovered. The rest of it was sent to stores in the US So that means it's even more likely that we are consuming stolen black market maple syrup.

[Corinne Vienne]

Vermont maple syrup. And then you look at the back and you're like, well, where in Vermont? The federation of kidney 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. It is criminal name. Hey, looking for Sticky?

[Sabrina Dianna Roga]

Where's Sticky? That's your barrel roller name.

[Corinne Vienne]

Yes. Anyway, that's next on our watch.

[Sabrina Dianna Roga]

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 gonna make about it, featuring Seth Rogen. He's already signed on.

[Corinne Vienne]

He's the only person we've cast so far. He's perfect. He lives in Canada.

[Sabrina Dianna Roga]

Yeah.

[Corinne Vienne]

Great. Foreign. Thank you so much for listening. We are your hosts, Sabrina Diana Roga and Corinne Vienne. 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 Crime House, 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 media at Crime House.

[Sabrina Dianna Roga]

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.

[Corinne Vienne]

Goodbye jury.

[Sabrina Dianna Roga]

Jury, you are dismissed.

[Katie Ring]

I'm Katie Ring, host of America's Most Infamous Crimes. Each week I take on one of the most notorious criminal cases in American history. Listen to and follow America's Most Infamous Crimes available now wherever you get your podcasts.

[Vanessa]

Looking for your next listen? Check out hidden history with Dr. Harini Bhatt every Monday. Dr. Bhatt goes where history gets mysterious vanished civilizations, doomsday prophecies and events that science still can't fully explain. Follow Hidden History now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you listen.