A Quebec businessman working in Mexico may have been carrying a large amount of cash on him when he suddenly went missing last week.

Daniel Dion, from Sherbrooke, Que., was last heard from while at a restaurant in Acapulco on Friday, Oct. 22. He didn't make it to a business appointment the next day.

Four members of his family are now in Acapulco, Mexico, conducting their own search to try to find out what happened to him.

Dion's 23-year-old niece, Franceska Dion, says the family has now learned more details about the night he went missing.

"We just found out that he went out to a restaurant in an Acapulco town. He left the place at 3 a.m. last Friday night, so Oct. 22. We also know that he had 500,000 pesos in his pocket," she told CTV's Canada AM Friday morning.

Five hundred thousand pesos is worth about CDN$41,000. As for why Dion would be walking around with that kind of money, Franceska said she didn't know.

She said the last time Dion spoke to his wife, around 10:30 p.m. on the night of his disappearance, he sounded happy.

"He was very excited because it was his birthday two days ago, he was turning 51, and he was going home on Oct. 26 and he was very excited," she said.

But Dion, who had been in country since Sept. 28, didn't board his flight back to Canada on Tuesday.

Dion is a frequent traveller to Mexico and is the CEO of Mexican-based company Ecopurse, which uses recycled materials to make purses.

His family says he is also an influential businessman who knew many high-level government officials, including the country's president.

Franceska has said her uncle typically phones home multiple times a day

"It's completely strange, it's not like (he was) a simple tourist who isn't careful," she said Thursday.

Dion's family members, who arrived in Mexico Wednesday, have now filed a report with Mexican police, and are organizing search efforts of their own. They plan to retrace Dion's steps, search hospitals and do everything they can to find out what happened.

Franceska has said that Acapulco authorities were slow to start looking for Dion because they wanted to see if he would show up for his flight home.

"Police are not very helpful. My family is doing their best to find out what happened, but we are in the dark right now,' she said Friday.

The Department of Foreign Affairs said it was aware of reports of a Canadian missing in Acapulco, but wouldn't provide further information due to privacy reasons.

"Consular officials in Ottawa and at the Canadian mission in Acapulco are working closely with local authorities to gather additional information and are providing consular assistance to the family of the individual," said department spokeswoman Claude Rochon.

The family has created a website (finddanieldion.com) where latest updates on the search will be shared and through which people can contact her family.