Lennart van den Ende, an avid cyclist and product leader for San Jose technology giant Cisco, was excited to learn that a man who tracks stolen bicycles found the two high-end bikes that a pair of thieves had snatched from his garage a few weeks earlier.
“He sent me an email and said, ‘Hey can we talk? I’ve got some good news for you,’ ” van den Ende recalled.
But Bike Index co-founder Bryan Hance had bad news, too. Hance’s Bay Area-based nonprofit had located the bicycles — a $6,000 Cervelo and a $5,000 Specialized — but the bikes were already in Mexico.
A screen-grab from surveillance video footage showing one of a pair of thieves caught on camera breaking into Lennart van den Ende’s garage in San Francisco, Calif. on Sept. 14, 2020, and stealing two high-end bicycles. (courtesy of Lennart van den Ende)
Van den Ende is one of dozens of Bay Area residents allegedly victimized by a crime ring that operated a stolen-bike pipeline between Silicon Valley and Mexico. An investigation by Hance and Bike Index led to police and FBI probes, and the federal indictment of San Jose transmission shop owner Victoriano Romero earlier this year on charges of allegedly shipping pricey bicycles stolen in the Bay Area — including van den Ende’s — out of the country.
Romero is on bail awaiting trial, but ongoing sales on Facebook of high-end bikes suggest the operation has continued without his alleged participation. Reached by phone at his shop, Tepeke Transmission, Romero hung up when asked by this news organization about the indictment. A lawyer for Romero declined to comment on his case. Romero’s next hearing is scheduled for July 31.
The indictment claims that between April 2020 and April 2021, Romero, 53, knowingly bought stolen bikes, “had the stolen bicycles disassembled and packaged up for delivery at his automotive shop in San Jose,” then had them delivered to a fellow conspirator in Mexico and shared in the profits.
Although the federal charges cover nine bikes worth $3,000 to $9,000, an exposé published this week by Wired magazine identifies Romero’s alleged partner in crime as an amateur bike racer from Jalisco State, whom this news organization is not naming because he has not been charged with a crime. Romero’s indictment describes his alleged Mexican connection as Unindicted Co-Conspirator 1, from the state of Jalisco.
The Wired article lays out a vast scheme that saw large numbers of expensive bikes stolen from Silicon Valley and elsewhere in the U.S. and sent to the Mexican man, who peddled them on a Facebook page not easily visible to U.S. users.
Hance believes 60 to 100 bikes worth $2,000 to $10,000 have been stolen from Bay Area garages and apartments as part of the operation.
The Mexican man, speaking briefly on the phone, called the accusations against him a lie.
The man’s Facebook page, region-locked and not visible to U.S. users without a virtual private network, showed high-end road and mountain bikes posted for sale as recently as Wednesday.
The page also …read more
Source:: The Mercury News – Entertainment
