Three confessed to bicycle thefts, police say

Trio allegedly targeted high-end bikes that were then dismantled

SANTA FE — Three Albuquerque men who were charged with stealing high-end bicycles from a downtown Santa Fe bike shop last week have admitted to stealing bikes from elsewhere in Santa Fe and from an Albuquerque shop, according to a police statement made public in District Court Thursday.

One of the alleged thieves said stolen bikes were taken apart and sold to a man nicknamed Stone Face affiliated with a Mexican drug cartel.

Carlos Trejo-Villalobos, 44, Carlos Navarrete-May, 31 and David Perez, 30, were arrested by Santa Fe police Dec. 27 after bikes and tires worth $32,000 stolen from Mellow Velo East Marcy Street were found in the back of a van driven by Navarrete-May. The affidavit says Navarrete-May admitted they cut the hinges on the front door of the store and completely removed it before stealing the merchandise and said he was paid by Trejo-Villalobos to drive his van in the heist.

Navarrete-May also admitted that the group burglarized the Broken Spoke bicycle shop on Cerrillos Road across from the Santa Fe Indian School Dec. 19 in a similar fashion. The owner of the Broken Spoke reported to police that four bikes worth $19,589 were taken.

The thieves also admitted to several other bike thefts, including three from the rack of a Dodge Ram that was parked in the Santa Fe Railyard area Dec. 6, two attached to a car in the Sage Inn parking lot on Cerrillos Road in October and $71,000 worth of bikes taken from Sports Systems on Montgomery Boulevard in Albuquerque, according to the police court affidavit.

Perez said he lives with Navarrete-May and Trejo-Villalobos on Tennessee Street in Albuquerque and that Navarrete-May pays him to help in the burglaries with money, food and board. Trejo-Villalobos told investigators that Navarrete-May was in charge of the Santa Fe burglaries and that he was paid for assisting in the Broken Spoke burglary and was promised payment for the Mellow Velo heist.

Trejo-Villalobos said the bikes were disassembled and sold to a man called Stone Face who lives in a different apartment unit at the same Tennessee Street address. Trejo-Villalobos said he feared for his life and for his family because Stone Face was affiliated with the Los Zetas Cartel. Perez said Stone Face was a man named Frank and that officers needed to use caution around him because Frank has an AR-15 with a large magazine.