LAS VEGAS – Authorities are searching for the grandfather of a boy allegedly kidnapped by men posing as police officers and believe he is involved in a Mexican drug cartel.
Metro Police Capt. Vincent Cannito said Friday that Clemens Fred Tinnemeyer, 51, was a "person of interest" in the nationwide search for 6-year-old Cole Puffinburger.
Cannito said detectives think the grandfather conducted drug dealing with Mexican nationals and the boy's abduction from a Vegas house was a "message."
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The Las Vegas Review-Journal characterized the illicit operation as a multimillion-dollar Mexican drug ring.
Cole was snatched from a Las Vegas home by a band of men posing as police officers. A country-wide Amber Alert remains in effect for the boy.
Tinnemeyer, of Las Vegas, was last seen in May and reported missing Sept. 11. He drives a 2004 white Dodge extended cab pickup truck with Mississippi license plates.
Cannito said the two Hispanic men who tied up the child's mother and her boyfriend at their house Wednesday morning and abducted the boy were after "significant money and drugs." A third man may also have been involved.
Police aren't saying whether a ransom demand has been made.
Two men identified themselves as police officers to gain entry to the home several miles northeast of downtown Las Vegas, Cannito said. They demanded money, then ransacked the home and tied up the couple.
"This child witnessed that," he said Thursday. "This child was ripped from the home."
The boy is described as 3 feet 11 and 48 pounds, with blond hair, blue eyes and silver-framed glasses. He was last seen wearing blue jeans, tennis shoes, a black shirt, and a black zip-up sweat shirt with white, black and blue stars.
One suspect is described as having black, shoulder-length, slicked-back hair. The man, in his early 30s, is about 5 feet 7 and 150 pounds and was last seen wearing a white T-shirt and blue jeans.
Las Vegas Police are asking anyone with information to call their missing persons unit.
Click here for more from the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
Click here for more from the Las Vegas Sun.
FOX News' Adam Housley and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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