Mumbai, September 20: Officials said on Tuesday that a New York woman is facing murder and drug charges after a one-year-old boy died from fentanyl overdose at the daycare she ran, and three other infants were extremely ill. Grei Mendez, 36, was arrested over the weekend after emergency responders were called to the Divino Nino Daycare in the Bronx on Friday after allegations of comatose toddlers.
According to police, a substantial amount of fentanyl was discovered inside the facility, including a kilogramme of the narcotic hidden on top of children's playmats. Four children under the age of three were admitted to the hospital, and one of them died. Mendez and Carlisto Acevedo Brito, 41, a renter in the apartment where the daycare was situated, face murder, narcotics possession and intent to distribute charges in New York state. Baby Almost Died after Doctors Inject the Wrong Drug; Here’s What You Need to Know about Sedatives Used on Kids.
In a separate indictment released on Tuesday, they were charged with federal drugs offences. The incidents at Divino Nino Daycare were tragic, according to Drug Enforcement Administration special agent Frank Tarentino in a statement. This death and drug poisonings are every parent's worst nightmare, and they plainly demonstrate the threat fentanyl brings to every New Yorker, he added. US Shocker: 18-Month-Old Girl Dies After Being Left in Hot Car Overnight Post Fourth of July Party in Florida, Parents Arrested and Charged for Manslaughter.
Mendez, according to US Attorney Damian Williams, put children "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."
(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Sep 20, 2023 10:32 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).