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The owner pleads guilty to federal charges

Grei Mendez pleaded guilty in Manhattan to federal charges, including conspiracy to distribute narcotics resulting in death.

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The owner of a New York City day care center where a 1-year-old died of fentanyl poisoning and three other children were hospitalized pleaded guilty Tuesday to federal charges, officials said.

According to the U.S. Attorney's Office, Grei Mendez pleaded guilty in Manhattan to charges including conspiracy to distribute narcotics resulting in death, possession with intent to distribute narcotics resulting in death, and possession with intent to distribute narcotics resulting in serious bodily injury for the Southern District of New York. She faces at least 20 years in prison and the possibility of life in prison.

Mendez's plea comes more than a year after four children were hospitalized at Divino Niño daycare in the Bronx on suspicion of fentanyl poisoning. One-year-old Nicholas Dominici died in a hospital while three other children under the age of three recovered after being given the overdose-reversing drug Narcan.

Prosecutors accused Mendez, along with her husband Felix Herrera Garcia and a co-conspirator, of running a fentanyl operation at the daycare. Earlier this month, Herrera Garcia was sentenced to 45 years in prison after pleading guilty to drug charges.

Renny “El Gallo” Parra Paredes was charged as a co-conspirator and pleaded guilty in late May to conspiracy to distribute narcotics, saying his conduct resulted in death and serious bodily injury. Herrera Garcia's cousin, Carlisto Acevedo Brito, was also charged in connection with the case.

“Grei Mendez just admitted that she conspired to store and distribute large quantities of dangerously toxic fentanyl at a Bronx daycare center, a place where parents expected their children to be protected and safe,” said U.S. Attorney Damian Williams in a statement on Tuesday. “This case has demonstrated from the beginning the senseless collateral damage caused by the fentanyl epidemic and should remind us all that the demand for illegal narcotics so often endangers innocent bystanders while drug traffickers recklessly pursue profit.”

The Deadly Toll of the Opioid Epidemic: Because of fentanyl, drug overdose deaths have quadrupled in the last two decades

What happened at the daycare center in the Bronx?

On September 15, 2023, New York Police Department officers responded to a report of unconscious children at the daycare center. Three children – an 8-month-old girl and two boys, 1 and 2 – were unresponsive.

All three children were given Narcan after first responders discovered they were showing signs of a drug overdose. Two of the children recovered, but Dominici died in a hospital.

Another 2-year-old boy, who was sent home before police arrived, survived after his mother noticed he was “lethargic and unresponsive” and took him to a hospital, authorities said at the time.

Before the incident, the daycare had passed three routine Department of Health inspections, including an annual unannounced search, which found no violations. Police also said they have not received any complaints from the community related to “drug transactions” at the center.

But further investigation revealed that more than 11 kilograms of fentanyl and heroin had been stored in secret compartments under the center's floors, where “children played, ate and slept daily,” prosecutors said.

Police said in court papers that a kilogram of fentanyl was also found on play mats in a closet and drug paraphernalia was hidden in the floor, including glassine envelopes stamped “Red Dawn.” According to court documents, the same stamp was found along with other drug supplies in the apartment where Parra Paredes lived.

Daycare owner accused of trying to cover up drug deals

Prosecutors said the drug operation had been running since about October 2022. From about July 2023 to September 2023, the four suspects conspired to distribute fentanyl at the daycare — which Mendez ran out of an apartment in the Bronx, according to court documents.

Prosecutors said in court papers that Mendez and Brito, who rented a bedroom at the center, tried to cover up the drug operation because the children were suffering from the effects of fentanyl exposure. According to a criminal complaint, Mendez called Herrera Garcia and Parra Paredes before calling 911 when she realized the children had been exposed.

Minutes before emergency responders arrived at the center, prosecutors said surveillance footage showed Herrera Garcia smuggling shopping bags from an alley. Prosecutors also accused Mendez of deleting approximately 21,526 messages between her and Herrera Garcia from an encrypted messaging application.

According to news reports at the time, authorities searched for Herrera Garcia for weeks before he was arrested on a bus in Sinaloa by Mexican authorities and Drug Enforcement Administration agents.

The incident sparked public outrage

The incident led to increased scrutiny of day care centers in New York City and a backlog of background checks on child care providers. Local health officials at the time said staff at the Bronx daycare passed background checks.

At an oversight hearing last year, New York City Council members asked how these employees could have passed a background check and whether the backlog in that approval process had anything to do with it. The city reportedly had a backlog of 140 background checks on day care providers and employees.

After the incident, New York City officials vowed to protect children after other incidents at daycare centers sparked public outrage. Weeks after the Bronx daycare incident, three people were arrested after “ghost guns” and a 3D printer were recovered from an unlocked room at a state-licensed daycare center.

“This is a heartbreaking scenario when you think you are taking your child to a safe place only to find out it is a dangerous environment,” Mayor Eric Adams said at the press conference on September 27, 2023. “We will work together together. We are clear that we must protect the children in this city.

Contributors: Jeanine Santucci and Zachary SchermeleUSA TODAY

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