CALGARY- One day after Red Deer, Alta., police were dealing with a teen found bound and gagged in a wooded area, they got a report of another man found beaten and abandoned just outside the city.

Staff Sgt. Rob Norum said investigators believe the cases are linked, the latest an act of retaliation for the earlier incident.

The 16-year-old boy was discovered by two people in a wooded area in the city just after 9 p.m. Wednesday. He was bound and gagged with duct tape.

"We can't confirm how long he was there," Norum said.

"Passersby noticed him crawling out of a ravine and cut the duct tape off."

The Good Samaritans took the boy to hospital, although he did not suffer any apparent injuries.

The teen claimed he was picked up from near a downtown gas station, bound, gagged and dropped off in an apparent attempted robbery by three men in a dark-coloured pickup up truck.

Norum said there is no evidence the teen was robbed and they are still trying to corroborate the alleged victim's version of events.

About 7 p.m. the next day, a 44-year-old man claimed he was picked up and driven to a rural location where he was repeatedly assaulted by four men.

He, too, was found by passersby and taken to hospital with non-life threatening injuries to his head and face.

While he told investigators he did not know his attackers, police believe the attack was done in retaliation for the duct-tape attack.

The victims and possible suspects are all known to police and charges have not been ruled out against the teen left bound in the earlier incident.

Norum stressed the attacks are believed to be drug-related and not random attacks.

"We have suspects in both cases," he said. "These are specifically targeted individuals and not random attacks."