LAS VEGAS – A 6-year-old boy kidnapped from a Las Vegas home by alleged drug dealers posing as policemen has been found alive in a neighborhood northeast of the Las Vegas Strip, police said early Sunday.
The child was "in extremely good condition" and had been taken to University Medical Center in Las Vegas for examination, Las Vegas police Capt. Vincent Cannito said at a news conference.
"He is safe and in our custody," Cannito said. "It's a blessing this child has been found."
Cole Puffinburger was recovered at around 10:30 p.m. Saturday after a caller informed detectives about a child walking alone on a street in a middle-class neighborhood of tidy, modest-sized homes about 5 miles from the Las Vegas Strip, Las Vegas police Officer Jay Rivera said.
Detectives discovered Cole outside a large Methodist church in the neighborhood. The area was being treated as a crime scene, but police gave no information about how Cole got there or where he had been kept since his Wednesday morning abduction.
Cole's father attended the news conference wearing a T-shirt with his son's photograph, but would not comment on when he planned to see his son or whether Cole would be returning to his home or the boy's mother's home.
"This is just about Cole being home," Robert Puffinburger said as he choked back tears. "Cole's back."
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An Amber Alert for Puffinburger had been canceled by midday Saturday.
Cannito said that a number of search warrants were executed in jurisdictions "throughout the country," yielding significant evidence, including case. And he released a photo of a Mexican man identified as Jesus Gastelum who was wanted for questioning as a "person of interest" in Puffinburger's disappearance. Two other "people of interest" people were previously questioned.
One was Puffinburger's grandfather, Clemons Fred Tinnemeyer, 51, who was arrested Friday night by federal agents near Riverside, Calif., though it wasn't immediately clear what charges he might face.
Los Angeles FBI spokeswoman Laura Eimiller told FOXNews.com that Tinnemeyer was arrested on a federal material witness warrant.
Police think Tinnenmeyer, of Las Vegas, conducted drug deals with Mexican nationals, from whom he may have stolen millions of dollars, Officer Cris Johnson, a Las Vegas police spokesman, said. And Cannito said the boy's abduction on Wednesday was a "message" of retaliation against the grandfather.
Tinnemeyer is being held at the Central Detention Center in the city of San Bernardino, Calif., and is listed on the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Web site as ineligible for bail.
Cole was snatched from a Las Vegas home by two fake policemen, who tied up the child's mother and her boyfriend at their house Wednesday morning.
Cannito said the two Hispanic men who carried out the kidnapping were after "significant money and drugs."
Johnson declined to say what role Tinnemeyer played in the drug operation or whether the kidnappers were seeking a ransom. Police believe methamphetamine was involved, Johnson said, and the Las Vegas Review-Journal characterized the illicit operation as a multimillion-dollar Mexican drug ring.
Authorities also were investigating whether other family members had ties to the drug operation, Johnson said.
"Money is a huge factor, obviously. Drugs are a huge factor," Johnson said. "The only innocent person involved in this entire operation is the boy."
Robert Puffinburger said he had just stopped passing out the fliers for the night when he got the call alerting him Cole had been found.
"I'm just so glad he's safe," he said.
FOX News' Adam Housley, Catherine Donaldson-Evans and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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