New photos show fentanyl stashed under trap door at NYC daycare | US News
Police have uncovered even more drugs at a New York City daycare that investigators believe was being used as a cover for a smuggling operation.
Investigators discovered a stash of fentanyl, an incredibly dangerous synthetic opioid, hidden underneath a trap door at the Bronx daycare center where a young child died after being exposed to the drug last week.
First responders rushed to Divino Nino Daycare on Friday, September 15 after three young children were reported unresponsive.
Paramedics quickly realized they were overdosing on opioids and administered Narcan. Two children, a 1-year-old boy and an 8-month-old girl, survived the horrifying ordeal.
Nicholas Feliz-Dominici, 1, died on the way to the hospital.
A fourth child from the daycare was later hospitalized with the same symptoms after his mother picked him up earlier.
A search of Divino Nino daycare uncovered one kilogram of fentanyl hidden under play mats in a room that the children used to take naps, as well as two kilo presses – which prosecutors say are used to package large quantities of drugs.
Grei Mendez, the daycare’s owner, was arrested on Saturday and charged with murder, manslaughter, assault, drug possession, and child endangerment.
Carlisto Acevedo Brito, Mendez’s cousin-in-law who rented a room from her, was also arrested and faces the same set of charges. Investigators said one of the kilo presses was discovered in his room.
Mendez’s husband, who was last seen leaving the premises with full plastic bags moments before first responders arrived, is still on the run from investigators.
Investigators went back to Divino Nino on Thursday, when they uncovered the trap door hiding a four-foot by six-foot compartment under a play room.
‘A large quantity of fentanyl, other narcotics, and drug paraphernalia was recovered in a trap floor in the play area at the daycare center,’ the New York Police Department (NYPD) said.
More than five kilograms of drugs were found in the crawl space.
Mendez and Brito were both indicted on federal drug charges on Tuesday, including narcotics possession with intent to distribute.
NYPD Commissioner Edward Caban called the incident ‘every parent’s worst nightmare.’
‘These alleged drug traffickers brazenly went about their illicit business in one of the most ill-conceived locations imaginable, but they will be held accountable,’ he said.
A grand jury in the Bronx delivered even more charges in a sealed indictment against Mendez and Brito on Thursday.
‘I may have not given birth to them, I may not have been parents who sent them to that day care center, but every single person in this county feels what they feel, that they entrusted day care center to take care of their children,’ Bronx District Attorney Darcel Clark said at a press conference announcing the new charges.
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