MONTREAL — If you like your maple syrup hot, there’s tons of it out there.

Literally.

The purloined product even traversed a provincial border after sticky-fingered thieves made off with the amber gold over the summer months.

Contents of 16,000 45-gallon barrels, siphoned off and reported stolen from a central distribution centre in August, have been found.

The Sûreté du Québec and the RCMP obtained search warrants last week and raided a facility in New Brunswick.

While Sergeant Daniel Thibodeau of the SQ could do no more than confirm that a search warrant “had been executed,” sources told The Gazette that an “important” amount of product was found in a maple syrup processing and exporting facility in Kedgwick, NB.

The barrels in the storage facility in Saint-Louis-de-Blandford, which is located 160 kilometres northeast of Montreal, near Victoriaville, were not taken outright but rather drained of their contents. The theft was discovered Aug. 24.

Presumably the contents were then whisked away in some sort of tanker truck.

This theft of sweet sirop is no small deal: the value of the stolen breakfast staple was estimated at more than $20 million. It was insured.

Last week, S.K. Export in Kedgwick was searched and a large quantity of syrup was shipped back to a storage facility in Quebec.

The “hot” syrup will be under lock and key, and monitored by surveillance cameras.

No arrests have been made at this point.

asutherland@montrealgazette.com