Arrests made in massive Canadian maple syrup heist

MONTREAL Police in Canada say three people have been arrested in connection with a massive maple syrup heist from a Quebec warehouse, which put a dent in the global supply.

Quebec produces up to 80 percent of the world's maple syrup.

Authorities never disclosed the exact amount of maple syrup stolen in August. But the warehouse contained Quebec's maple syrup reserves, which were supposed to hold 10 million pounds valued at $30 million.

Those arrested are scheduled to face charges Tuesday of theft, conspiracy, fraud and trafficking in stolen goods.

Police also have seized vehicles suspected of being used in the illicit trafficking of the syrup.

The Federation of Quebec Maple Syrup Producers said in August that it discovered that the syrup was missing during a routine inventory where empty barrels were found at the site at St-Louis-de-Blandford, Quebec. Officials initially kept the news quiet, hoping it would help police solve the crime.

Anne-Marie Granger Godbout, the executive director of the federation, said that while it isn't unusual for individual maple syrup producers to have stock stolen, having millions worth of syrup stolen is "unusual."

"It's the first time something like this has happened," she said at the time. "We've never seen a robbery of this magnitude."

She said the disappearance of the stock wasn't obvious at first in the huge warehouse. The facility alone houses nearly the equivalent of half the entire U.S. production of maple syrup in a year, she said.

"The U.S. market is the main market for maple syrup, about 75 percent of Canadian maple syrup is directly exported to the U.S.," she said. She noted the theft was particularly ill-timed after a disappointing 2012 season for U.S. producers, triggering more demand for Canadian syrup.

[Weallhaveone]

Yea for the pancakes of the world.

[myth1958]

Since Canadian maple syrup is allowed to have sugars from other sources added and still be called 'pure maple syrup', this was no loss to the world. Now if the thieves had taken hockey pucks...

[joesapper]

A major Canadian caper solved with the arrest of suspects !

You know Folks with the news events streaming across the wire each day , a story like this gives hope that perhaps mankind still has hope of making it for centuries to come .

Canadian Maple Syrup caper sweetens the sour taste of the world news.
None the less this is still a crime worth reporting , but some of the failures of mankind that are reported in the media each day are far beyond the crime reports of when I was younger other than those events of war .

I wonder how far back would one have to go to see a noticable change in the daily news ? I seems that weekly there are horrific acts of crime occurring world wide . Mexico and Chicago lose more to crime in a six month period combined , compared to the eleven year war in Afganistan .