‘Never seen it to this scale’: What an RCMP alcohol bust says about NSLC theft

In 21 years of policing, RCMP Sgt. Serge Landry says he’d never seen anything like what was seized from a home in Dartmouth, N.S., just before last Christmas.

After a two-month investigation into significant alcohol thefts from NSLC stores in the Halifax region, officers seized more than 450 bottles of hard alcohol worth almost $20,000 from a home on Floral Avenue.

Police even seized a ledger detailing the alcohol being delivered to the home and what had been resold.

“I’ve never seen it to this scale,” said Landry.

The almost $20,000 in stolen alcohol isn’t the full value of what was seized, as it merely reflected the stock on hand, said Landry.

Landry said the most-stolen product was Smirnoff vodka and there was even a bottle of cognac worth almost $1,000. A photo of the haul staged by RCMP shows products including rum, tequila, gin, whisky and scotch.

NSLC seeing more ‘high-impact thefts’

Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, the NSLC has seen a huge spike in thefts from its stores.

“What we are typically seeing are more high-impact thefts, where an individual comes into our store and grabs many products at one time and then walks out,” said NSLC spokesperson Terah McKinnon.

An access-to-information request obtained by CBC News provides insight into how big the theft problem is.

Increased thefts cut into the NSLC’s bottom line, meaning less profit is funnelled back into government coffers.

The cost of the stolen product amounts to hundreds of thousands of dollars each year, according to documents obtained by CBC.

The NSLC even closed its Scotia Square location in downtown Halifax in late February, partly because theft incidents there surged more than 160 per cent between April 1, 2025, and Jan. 31, 2026, compared to the same period a year before. Provincewide, the number of incidents was up 15 per cent.

A slide presentation in the documents obtained by CBC ranks the top 15 NSLC stores by theft numbers, but the locations are redacted on the grounds that the “disclosure could reasonably be expected to threaten anyone else’s safety or mental or physical health.”

Another document notes: “Prolific offenders continue to be the top priority, followed by young offenders.”

McKinnon said if customers spot someone stealing product, they should not intervene. Instead, they should let staff know. Staff will gather information for NSLC’s security, which will then provide information to police. Staffers are similarly encouraged not to intervene.

One of the ways the corporation is responding to the thefts is through staffing. McKinnon said when the corporation’s security team identifies stores where more theft is happening, they send more “loss-prevention associates” to work at those stores.

For the RCMP investigation that seized the stolen product, Landry said the three stores most targeted were in Upper Tantallon, Sackville and Cole Harbour.

Three people have been charged for their alleged roles in the thefts. Two reside at the Floral Avenue home and the third person is believed to be the one who delivered the stolen alcohol.

Landry said police believe the thefts were carried out by multiple people and are working to determine their identities.

He said the theft of alcohol is a public safety concern.

“Youths are buying this alcohol, anybody’s buying this alcohol,” said Landry. “There’s no regulation and that’s a very serious concern for us.”

Some of the measures the NSLC has taken to reduce theft include not placing some products on the shelf. Customers seeking those products must ask staff for them.

Another measure has been to install secure bottle-toppers on known high-theft products, such as Smirnoff vodka. If the product leaves the store with the topper attached, an alarm sounds.

McKinnon said the measure started as a pilot project, but an additional 10 stores have since started doing it. The NSLC has 107 stores provincewide.

At the store where the measure was first put in place, there’s been an 18 per cent decrease in theft over the last year, said McKinnon.

“That tells us it’s working,” she said.

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