2 more face charges in Vegas boy abduction case

Posted 07 3 2009 1:16PM

LAS VEGAS – Two more defendants have been named in a federal cocaine trafficking case stemming from the kidnapping of a 6-year-old boy from his Las Vegas home last October.

A revised indictment unsealed Tuesday in Las Vegas brings to four the number of defendants in the federal criminal case involving the abduction of Cole Puffinburger, U.S. attorney's office in Nevada said.

Prosecutors say the boy was kidnapped and moved from place to place in a suitcase by drug traffickers trying to find his grandfather, Clemens Fred Tinnemeyer, a courier in their U.S., Mexico and Canada smuggling ring.

The newly identified defendants are charged with conspiracy to distribute a controlled substance and other crimes.

Erik Dushawn Webster, 44, was arrested May 20 in Toledo, Ohio, and made an initial appearance in the case June 15 in U.S. District Court in Las Vegas, U.S. attorney's office spokeswoman Natalie Collins said Wednesday.

Webster was released to a halfway house pending a court appearance July 10 with Jose Lopez-Buelna and Luis Vega-Rubio on charges including conspiracy to distribute a controlled substance.

Jesus Gastelum, 35, the other new defendant, is a fugitive, U.S. attorney's office spokeswoman Natalie Collins said Wednesday.

Lopez-Buelna, 48, and Vega-Rubio, 36, previously pleaded not guilty to conspiracy to commit child kidnapping. Both are being held in federal custody pending trial and also face other charges.

The indictment alleges Lopez-Buelna and Gastelum paid people to buy motor homes in the United States to move cocaine and money between Mexico, Canada and places in Nevada, California, Georgia, Illinois and New York.

The document accuses Lopez-Buelna of heading a search for Tinnemeyer after he disappeared with $4.5 million he found in a hidden compartment in a motor home. The document alleges Vega-Rubio delivered a threatening note to Tinnemeyer's daughter in Las Vegas before Puffinburger was abducted on Oct. 15. He was found Oct. 18.

Tinnemeyer, 52, and his girlfriend, Terri Lynn Leavy, face separate federal charges for allegedly making off with the money.

The revised indictment also seeks to let the government confiscate more than $3.9 million in cash, several vehicles, a boat and two semiautomatic pistols seized by federal and local authorities in the case.

(This version CORRECTS name 'Jose Lopez-Buelna.')