Pair charged in Las Vegas drug case
Federal prosecutors say Clemens Fred Tinnemeyer was on the run.
He and cohort Terri Leavy had stolen at least $5 million from Mexican drug traffickers, they say, for whom the pair had allegedly transported cocaine, methamphetamine and money.
They fled as far as Mississippi, where they allegedly hid bundles of cash in storage units, authorities said.
Last month, the scheme crumbled when Tinnemeyer’s 6-year-old grandson, Cole Puffinburger, was kidnapped, apparently in connection with the missing money, prosecutors said.
After several days and a nationwide search, the bespectacled child was dropped off at a bus stop in Las Vegas, unharmed.
On Monday, Tinnemeyer and Leavy were each charged with a felony for allegedly mailing $60,000 in drug money from Mississippi to Nevada. If convicted, each could face more than a year in prison.
During the proceedings, federal prosecutor Kathleen Bliss said authorities had seized about $3.5 million in the investigation, which is continuing.
Tinnemeyer and Leavy remain in federal custody.
U.S. Magistrate Robert J. Johnston scheduled their preliminary hearing for Nov. 17 and unsealed a criminal complaint detailing their alleged roles as middlemen in the drug trade.
Tinnemeyer allegedly told an informant that he worked with the Mexican mafia. He would drive to Victorville, leave his RV at a home and return to find it loaded with about 500 kilograms of cocaine to deliver across the United States, the complaint says.
The informant, whose name was redacted from the complaint, allegedly saw Tinnemeyer remove bricks of a white substance from a hidden compartment in the RV.
Tinnemeyer would transport money to Mexico, the informant told the FBI. Between October 2007 and April, Tinnemeyer entered Mexico through Arizona, New Mexico and California, court papers say.
Tinnemeyer reportedly left Las Vegas in May. The complaint says Leavy’s sister traveled to Mississippi in September to warn the pair that “unknown Hispanic individuals” were looking for them.
Leavy, whom the FBI interviewed after Cole’s kidnapping, said she and Tinnemeyer stole drug money from two “major drug traffickers” in Las Vegas, authorities said. She thought they were responsible for the kidnapping, the complaint says.
Leavy also told the FBI that she had information related to a distribution network in Fontana that was linked to at least one Mexican cartel.
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