Is ‘The Sticky’ Inspired by Actual Events? Exploring the True Maple Syrup Heist
In July 2012, Michel Gavreau was performing a standard inspection of a maple syrup warehouse located near Laurierville, Quebec.
He ascended a stack of 600-pound barrels, assuming they would bear his weight, but when he reached the top, he nearly lost his balance.
One of the barrels appeared unstable, and upon looking inside, Gavreau discovered it was empty. It turned out that many of the adjacent barrels were empty as well, while others had been filled with water, as reported by Vanity Fair in 2016, which cited the retelling by Caroline Cyr, a spokeswoman for the Quebec Maple Syrup Producers Federation.
This incident led to the revelation of what would become known as the Great Canadian Maple Syrup Heist, a years-long operation where a group of criminals siphoned syrup from thousands of barrels, resulting in losses worth millions of dollars.
The heist inspired a new series on Prime Video titled “The Sticky” (Dec. 6), featuring Margo Martindale as a syrup farmer facing land seizure by the government.
Although the comedy-drama is only loosely based on the actual heist and none of its protagonists reflect the real-life syrup thieves, it sheds new light on one of Canada’s most bizarre crimes.
Continue reading to discover more about the real story behind the Great Canadian Maple Syrup Heist.
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Why would people steal maple syrup?
While it may seem peculiar for maple syrup to be the target of a multimillion-dollar heist, this sweet product is a significant industry in Canada.
Canada is responsible for nearly 75% of the world’s pure maple syrup production, as stated by the U.S. International Trade Commission.
Due to variations in syrup harvests each year caused by climate, tree diseases, and other factors, producers established a strategic reserve to ensure availability. This allows them to stockpile surplus syrup during good years and utilize it during less favorable conditions.
“In the States, you have the strategic oil reserve,” Simon Trépanier, then general manager of the Federation of Quebec Maple Syrup Producers, now its executive director, told The New York Times in 2012. “Mother Nature is not generous every year, so we have our own global strategic reserve.”
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The strategic reserve helps maintain stable pricing, which is certainly significant.
Around the time of the heist, maple syrup traded at $32 per gallon, equating to $1,800 per barrel, as reported by Bloomberg News. (For context, a gallon of crude oil in 2012 was priced at $2.66, according to Statista.)
During the months-long heist, criminals pilfered syrup from over 9,500 barrels, valued at over $18 million CAD (approximately $12 million USD in 2024).
At his trial, the ringleader Richard Vallières claimed he sold the stolen syrup for $10 million CAD, securing a personal profit around $1 million CAD, or just over $700,000 USD today, according to BBC News.
“To steal that amount of maple syrup means you have to know the market,” Trépanier explained to Bloomberg.
How did the thieves execute the theft?
In 2011, a particularly large surplus of maple syrup necessitated that producers rent additional warehouse space to store the excess supply.
This scenario presented an opportunity for the thieves. They acquired another section of that extra warehouse under the pretense of conducting a different business, which granted them access to the premises, according to The New York Times.
Occasionally, the thieves would transport barrels of syrup from the warehouse under the cover of night, siphoning the syrup into their own containers before returning the original barrels filled with water, as detailed by Vanity Fair.
Eventually, they devised a method to drain syrup directly from the barrels in the warehouse, allowing them to avoid the hassle of transporting barrels back and forth. The syrup was then sold to buyers outside Quebec, who were allegedly unaware that it was stolen.
Remarkably, after the theft was uncovered, more than 600 barrels of the stolen syrup were retrieved in New Brunswick in October 2012 and returned to Quebec under police escort, as reported by NBC News.
At the time, Étienne St-Pierre, owner of the New Brunswick export company where the syrup was discovered, expressed ignorance of the syrup’s questionable origin, claiming he purchased it from his usual suppliers in Quebec, according to NBC News.
However, it was later revealed that St-Pierre was complicit in the scheme. He was convicted in 2016 for fraud and trafficking in stolen goods, reported by CBC.
Jan Thijs / Amazon Prime
What consequences did the criminals face?
In 2016, twenty-six individuals were arrested in connection with the maple syrup theft, according to the CBC.
The following year, in 2017, the heist’s mastermind, Richard Vallières, received a nearly eight-year prison sentence and was imposed a fine exceeding $9 million CAD, according to Reuters.
Vallières contested this decision, resulting in a reduction of his fine to approximately $1 million CAD. However, in 2022, Canada’s Supreme Court reinstated the original ruling, requiring him to pay the entire value of the syrup he stole, as reported by BBC News.
Vallières’ father, Raymond Vallières, was also involved in the crime. He received a sentence of two years minus one day and was mandated to pay around $10,000 CAD within a year.
Other individuals sentenced for their roles included syrup reseller Étienne St-Pierre, Avik Caron, whose spouse was part owner of the warehouse central to the heist, and Sébastien Jutras, a truck driver who moved the stolen syrup.
During his testimony, Jutras mentioned that he sometimes collected payments from buyers on behalf of Richard Vallières, recalling an instance where he picked up a shoebox filled with cash that “had to be $200,000,” as reported by the National Post in 2017.
He also recounted how Vallières justified the large-scale theft from the Federation of Quebec Maple Syrup Producers.
“He said, ‘Stealing from thieves is not stealing,’” Jutras testified.
