This article focuses on the Colorado-specific details of Bike Index's ConstruBikes data and analysis.

If this is the first thing you are reading of this matter, stop - go read these 2 links first, then come back here:

Article 1: WIRED article

Article 2: ConstruBikes - the 10,000 ft view

In short: during our time spent monitoring ConstruBikes, we saw that seller switch his inventory to new supply locations: California, Oregon, and Colorado. Many, many bikes came from Colorado.

To be clear, that means this seller in La Barca, Jalisco Mexico was sourcing bikes from CA, OR, and CO to keep his sales flowing. This switch was likely caused by the arrest and prosecution of his US-side conspirator in San Jose who was sourcing from the Bay Area.

We eventually linked these Colorado bikes via their sales imagery to a specific individual in El Paso Texas, just across the border from Juarez Mexico. That Juarez is a hotbed of stolen Colorado bikes - this is not news to Bike Index.

This seller's online trail so thoroughly leaked information that we can only call it an 'OSINT goldmine'. Specifically, he likes to pop over to the school behind his residence in order to snap images of the various bikes he has for sale - images which are then reposted on the ConstruBikes FB as being for sale via ConstruBikes to the Mexican market.

Even as I write this article, today, 06/10/2024, ConstruBikes is offering bikes for sale stolen out of Longmont, Colorado. From the victim on this one: "That's definitely my Santa Cruz, The handlebar grips are very unique with flat surfaces to support my injured right hand. I added those aftermarket. The extended upward-angled stem was also something I added after purchasing the bike. The scuffs on the cranks were a by-product of the shoes I used"

Yes, we sent this all to every law enforcement contact we ever interfaced with. Nothing ever really came of it.

We publish this data here, for the community - Colorado area theft victims, investigators, media, etc. We hope it helps illuminate the size and scope of the problem, and we hope somebody else can devote some time to this specific rabbit hole that we did not have time to pursue.

Here's one such FB group that is a hotbed of Colorado stolen bikes

https://www.facebook.com/groups/JUAREZBICICLETAS is a hotbed of bikes stolen from Colorado. Anybody who spends twenty minutes in there can identify the players and note the number and volume of bikes being sold.

Specifically: note anybody who has a logo, branding, and who cross advertises bikes in multiple FB groups, and moves more than a few bikes a month. You'll pick them out fast enough, and there are several border area FB groups like this. Go looking, you'll find them.

The pipeline

The pipeline appears to be theft rings stealing bikes from various Colorado cities, trucking them to El Paso flea markets, and/or to various sellers directly in Juarez. The Ascarate flea market in particular seems to be where a lot of these bikes are being sourced from.

Facebook sucks and is complicit in all of this

No, Facebook doesn't profit off of the sales in this FB page. They do however profit from the eyeballs, traffic, and ads being served to this group's viewers, and they enable the rampant black market sales happening here and elsewhere. None of the Facebook employees we spoke to over the last 4 years would do so on the record, mostly because they all know what a monster they have created. None of the existing FB mechanisms that exist have any way of addressing this kind of problem. The sooner we can rid Facebook from our society, the better.

Please Help Support Our Work:

This investigation took a large amount of time and resources. This was a 4 year effort involving countless unpaid hours of work, collaboration, and analysis. You can support Bike Index investigator Bryan Hance directly, via Venmo, at @bhance - and/or you can support Bike Index by clicking here and donating.

-Bike Index