Four children under the age of three were hospitalized and one of them died. (Representative)
New York:
A New York woman is facing murder and drug charges after a one-year-old boy died of fentanyl poisoning in the daycare center she operated in and three other children became seriously ill, officials said Tuesday. Grei Mendez, 36, was arrested over the weekend after paramedics responded to reports of unconscious children at the Divino Nino Daycare in the Bronx on Friday.
Police said a large quantity of fentanyl was found at the facility, including a kilogram of the drug stored on children’s play mats.
Four children under the age of three were hospitalized and one of them died.
Mendez and Carlisto Acevedo Brito, 41, renters of the apartment where the daycare was located, are charged by New York state with murder, drug possession and intent to distribute.
They faced federal narcotics charges in an additional indictment announced Tuesday.
“Tragedy does not begin to describe the events that occurred at Divino Nino Daycare,” Drug Enforcement Administration Special Agent Frank Tarentino said in a statement.
“These deaths and drug poisonings are every parent’s worst nightmare and clearly define the danger fentanyl poses to every New Yorker,” Tarentino said.
U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said Mendez placed children “in direct danger by conducting a narcotics operation and storing lethal fentanyl in the area where the children ate, slept and played.”
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