Cole Puffinburger, 6yrs old, Las Vegas KIDNAPPED 10/15/08 (FOUND ALIVE in VEGAS)

[pdh3]

I'm so relieved he's not going home with his Mom. It sounds like Dad may take better care of him. He's a civil engineer, so maybe he has a life removed from drugs and money laundering, and he can keep Cole in a safe, healthy environment.
It will be very interesting to learn just who on the maternal side of the family is connected to the drug trade besides the grandfather.....and who will face additional charges.


Jesus  Gastelum......if there ever was a misnomer......

[MuffyBee]

$10K bail set for man held in Nev. abduction probe

By KEN RITTER – 1 hour ago

NORTH LAS VEGAS, Nev. (AP) — A man detained in the investigation of a 6-year-old boy's abduction can be held a week longer while prosecutors consider filing a weapons charge, a judge decided Wednesday.

The brief hearing did not address the abduction, and police have not said why they consider Jose Lopez-Buelna a "person of interest."

The convicted drug trafficker was arrested during the investigation into Cole Puffinburger's abduction. The boy was found unharmed Saturday night.

Lopez-Buelna, 48, appeared at the brief hearing by closed-circuit video from jail. He was not represented by a lawyer but told the judge he understood what the judge told him.

Justice of the Peace Stephen Dahl found probable cause to hold him on suspicion of a felony weapons violation and set bail at $10,000. Lopez-Buelna could be released if prosecutors don't file a charge by Oct. 29.

Cole was abducted from his mother's home Oct. 8 by two men posing as police, and he was the subject of an intensive search before he was released unharmed on a Las Vegas street.

The boy's grandfather, Clemens Fred Tinnemeyer, and a woman believed to be his companion are being held in federal custody as material witnesses.

Police initially said they were investigating whether Tinnemeyer stole money from Mexican drug dealers and said Cole's kidnapping was a "message." But they haven't given further information.

Someone else is being sought as a person of interest, but police have named no suspects in Cole's kidnapping.

Lopez-Buelna's arrest report says he was convicted in 1997 in California of transporting controlled substances. Las Vegas police reported seizing a handgun in his bedroom and said he had not registered in Nevada as a convicted felon.

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5gTV3mn_HiSgnqf1izYeAEJ8XdrRAD93VR58G0

[MuffyBee]

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[Monkey See Monkey Don't Do]

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[MuffyBee]

Feb 24, 7:34 PM EST

2 charged in Nevada boy's drug-related abduction

LAS VEGAS (AP) -- Authorities say two men have been charged in the kidnapping of a 6-year-old Las Vegas boy last year.

U.S. Attorney for Nevada Greg Brower says 36-year-old Luis Vega-Rubio and 49-year-old Jose Lopez-Buelna are each charged with one count of conspiracy to kidnap a child.

A federal criminal complaint unsealed Tuesday accuses the men of abducting Cole Puffinburger on Oct. 15 to send a message to the boy's grandfather.

Prosecutors believe the grandfather had made off with millions of dollars in drug money from a U.S.-Mexico smuggling operation.

Puffinburger was found unharmed three days later in a Las Vegas neighborhood.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/N/NEVADA_BOY_ABDUCTED?SITE=FLTAM&SECTION=US

[Nut44x4]

Man pleads not guilty in Vegas boy abduction case
By KEN RITTER
(Published March 27, 2009)
LAS VEGAS — A man who authorities call a figure in a Mexican drug ring pleaded not guilty Friday to plotting to abduct a 6-year-old boy to send a message to the boy's grandfather.

U.S. District Magistrate Judge Robert Johnson set trial May 19 for Jose Luis Lopez-Buelna, the same date previously set for trial for Luis Vega-Rubio, 36, a co-defendant who pleaded not guilty March 18.

Both men were indicted March 17 on a charge of conspiracy to commit child kidnapping, a felony carrying a mandatory 20 year sentence in federal prison and a $250,000 fine.

Lopez-Buelna's lawyer said outside court he didn't think the boy, first-grader Cole Puffinburger, can identify the 48-year-old Lopez-Buelna from the Oct. 15 abduction.

"My client has yet to be identified by the alleged victim, by the boy," attorney Robert Draskovich said.

Prosecutors Kathleen Bliss and Nicholas Dickinson declined comment on Draskovich's claim.

The indictment accuses the two men of orchestrating the boy's kidnapping to retaliate against Clemens Fred Tinnemeyer, whom prosecutors say was a courier in a U.S.-Mexico drug-smuggling ring.

The document says the abduction happened after Tinnemeyer, 52, and his girlfriend, Terri Lynn Leavy, made off with $4 million they found hidden in a motor home they used to transport drugs over the border for Lopez-Buelna.

Puffinburger was taken from his home at gunpoint after a man identified himself as a police officer and several other men bound the boy's mother and her boyfriend with duct tape, according to court documents and police.

The boy was found unharmed three days later, walking in a quiet Las Vegas neighborhood.

Tinnemeyer was arrested shortly after the kidnapping in Riverside, Calif., and remains in federal custody. At the time of his arrest, federal agents found $3.7 million in cash squirreled away at sites in Mississippi, Nevada and California, according to a criminal complaint.

Authorities believe Tinnemeyer was shipping money from Waveland, Miss., to Las Vegas.

Tinnemeyer and Leavy were charged in November with interstate and foreign travel or transportation in aid of racketeering enterprises, a felony punishable by up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine. That case was closed Feb. 26 with a declaration that it was being folded into a sealed criminal case.

U.S. attorney's office spokeswoman Natalie Collins in Las Vegas said Friday she could not comment on the sealed case.

Lopez-Buelna has been in custody since his arrest in October by Las Vegas police on illegal immigration charges. Vega-Rubio was arrested March 17 by FBI agents in Los Angeles.

Vega-Rubio is accused of delivering a threatening note to the boy's mother instructing Tinnemeyer to contact them, and authorities say Vega-Rubio and Lopez-Buelna also contacted several of Tinnemeyer's friends and acquaintances.

Lopez-Buelna is accused of using a gun to force one of Tinnemeyer's friends to show him where the boy's mother lived, and of offering her $20,000 to find Tinnemeyer.

http://www.fortmilltimes.com/124/story/508257.html