More Drugs Found in Trap Door of Daycare Where Fentanyl Killed Child

Police recovered more Fentanyl in a trapdoor under the play area of a Bronx daycare. -Photo by NYPD

By Dan Gesslein 

Bronx Voice 

September 21, 2023 

BRONX - Police recovered even more drugs inside a trap door at a Bronx daycare where a child died of fentanyl exposure. 

Crime scene investigators returned to Divino Niño Daycare today and conducted a second search of the deadly daycare. 

A search of the playroom revealed a secret door where officers found more drugs. NYPD released photos of the trap door and the drugs stored in the compartment underneath the play area. 

Cops said they recovered “a large quantity of Fentanyl, other narcotics, & drug paraphernalia was recovered in a trap floor in the play area at the daycare center.” 

Investigators would not comment on what led them to return and research the daycare.  

Authorities said one-year-old Nicholas Feliz Dominici died as a result of Fentanyl exposure. Three other children suffered exposure to the deadly drug but will survive. 

Nicholas Feliz Dominici died as a result of exposure to Fentanyl at the daycare center, prosecutors said.

Investigators said the suspects had been running a pill mill out of the daycare. Prosecutors have charged several people linked to the daycare center with federal charges. 

The US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District said the defendants stored a kilo of Fentanyl on top of the play mats the young children played and slept on.

Daycare owner Grei Mendez and Carlisto Acevedo Brito were charged with narcotics possession with intent to distribute resulting in death and conspiracy to distribute narcotics resulting in death in connection with the poisoning of four children under the age of three, one of whom died, at a daycare facility in the Bronx. 

“Parents entrusted Grei Mendez with the care of their children.  As alleged, instead of diligently safeguarding the well-being of those children, she and her co-conspirators put them directly in harm’s way, running a narcotics operation and storing deadly fentanyl out of the very space in which the children ate, slept, and played,” said U.S. Attorney Damian Williams. “The disregard shown by Mendez and her co-conspirators for the lives of the children under her care is simply staggering.” 

DEA Special Agent in Charge Frank A. Tarentino III said: “Tragedy doesn’t begin to describe the events that took place at Divino Niño Daycare.  This death and drug poisonings are every parent’s worst nightmare and clearly define the danger fentanyl poses to every New Yorker. Fentanyl kills indiscriminately, and the defendants’ callous and irresponsible disregard to safety led to two of the most heinous acts imaginable, causing the death of a child and poisoning three other children.”