Police say that the fentanyl that killed a one-year-old child in a New York City nursery was concealed under a mat in the nap room while the child slept.
On Friday, Nicholas Dominici, who had only worked at the nursery for a week, died of a suspected narcotic overdose.
Three additional children were hospitalized after exposure to the potent narcotic at the Bronx creche.
Two individuals have been indicted on drug conspiracy and murder allegations.
The children, aged eight months to two years, are believed to have inhaled fentanyl at the creche.
Three minors were administered Narcan, a drug used to reverse opioid overdoses.
ABC quoted Dominici’s father, Otoniel Feliz, saying he is still processing his small child’s death.
“I love him, I miss him, and I want him back,” stated Mr. Feliz. However, there is nothing that will return my son to me.
A nursery search uncovered one kilogram of fentanyl “under a mat where the children had been sleeping earlier,” according to NYPD Chief Detective Joseph Kenny.
Additionally, investigators allegedly found three presses used to compact kilograms of drugs.
Federal prosecutors have charged the owner of the Divino Nio nursery in the Bronx, Grei Mendez, 36, and her tenant, Carlisto Acevedo Brito, 41, with narcotics possession “with intent to distribute resulting in death” and conspiracy to distribute narcotics resulting in death.
“We allege that the defendants poisoned four infants and killed one of them because they were operating a drug operation out of a creche,” Manhattan US Attorney Damien Williams said on Tuesday.
“A nursery – a place where children should be kept safe, not surrounded by a drug that can kill them in an instant.”
The narcotics recovered from the nursery, according to the police, could have killed 500,000 people.
After discovering that her children were ill, Ms. Mendez called her spouse multiple times before dialing 911, as evidenced by surveillance footage and phone records. According to officials, her husband arrived and removed several full shopping bags from the nursery.
According to prosecutors, Ms. Mendez purged approximately 20,000 text messages from her phone before her arrest. Eventually, authorities were able to recover them.
The fourth surge of the fentanyl epidemic sweeps the United States.
Authorities are still searching for her spouse, who has been identified as a co-conspirator in court documents. According to the police, he was captured on camera fleeing the site of the incident.
A lawyer for Ms. Mendez stated that his client denied the charges and was oblivious that illegal substances were stored in the nursery.
According to ABC News, her attorney, Andres Aranda, stated, “Her only crime was renting a room to someone with a kilogramme.”
Police say that the fentanyl that killed a one-year-old child in a New York City nursery was concealed under a mat in the nap room while the child slept.
There is no evidence that she provided improper care for these infants.
It is unknown whether Mr. Brito, the cousin of Ms. Mendez’s spouse, has an attorney.
Authorities have classified both suspects as flight risks and hold them without bond. If convicted, they each face life in prison.
On September 6, city health examiners conducted a surprise inspection of the nursery, but no violations were found, according to City Health Commissioner Ashwin Vasan.
“I apologise, but my childcare inspectors are not trained to search for fentanyl. But perhaps they should,” he said at a Monday news conference.
At the same news conference, Mayor Eric Adams demanded a “full national assault” against the substance, emphasizing its potency.
A tenth of the measure of a fingernail is sufficient to kill an adult. Imagine what it could do to a child,” he said, holding up a photograph comparing a lethal dosage to a penny.
According to recent research, fentanyl has reached virtually every part of the United States, from Hawaii to Rhode Island and Alaska.
Less than 40,000 Americans died of drug overdoses in 2010, and less than 10% of those fatalities were attributable to fentanyl.
By 2021, more than 100,000 people per year had perished from drug overdoses, with an estimated 66% of those deaths attributable to fentanyl.
SOURCE – (BBC)
