Operator of N.Y. Daycare that was Secret Stash House Pleads Guilty After Toddler Dies from Fentanyl Poisoning

Mar. 15, 2025

Daycare operator Grei Mendez (center) was arrested Sept. 17, 2023, two days after one-year-old Nicholas Feliz Dominici died from fentanyl poisoning after being in her care.Photo:Theodore Parisienne for NY Daily News via Getty

Theodore Parisienne for NY Daily News via Getty

A New York woman whoran a daycare in the Bronx–outfitted with a trapdoorhiding large quantities of drugs – where a1-year-old boy diedoffentanyl poisoninglast year has admitted to her role in the drug operation that led to his death.

Inside a federal courtroom in Manhattan, Grei Mendez pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to distribute narcotics resulting in death and serious bodily injury and two drug possession charges on Tuesday, Oct. 29, according to her federal court docket.

Noting that parents had “expected their children would be protected and safe” at the daycare, U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said in astatementthat her “reprehensible conduct” had “resulted in the needless and tragic death” of 1-year-old Nicholas Feliz Dominici and the poisoning of three other young children.

Nicholas Feliz Dominici.Gofundme

Gofundme

Mendez is slated for sentencing at 2 p.m. on March 3, 2025.

Her lead attorney, David K. Bertan, declined to comment to PEOPLE.

Otoniel Feliz (pictured) holds up a photograph of his deceased son, Nicholas Feliz Dominici, at a press conference in the Bronx, Oct. 5, 2023.Theodore Parisienne for NY Daily News via Getty

The mother of a fourth child, who had left the daycare early, also took her unresponsive child to a local hospital, where the child received narcan to counteract the opioid overdose.

Felix Herrera Garcia, the husband of daycare operator Grei Mendez, at the Bronx courthouse, Oct. 5, 2023.Theodore Parisienne for NY Daily News via Getty

Ultimately, per the complaint, investigators determined that before dialing 911, Mendez called her husband, Felix Herrera Garcia, who was later named as a co-conspirator,arrested in Mexicoandsentencedearlier this month to 45 years in prison for trafficking fentanyl out of the daycare.

Several minutes before emergency personnel arrived to pick up the unresponsive children – ages 8 months, 1 and 2 years – Herrera Garcia is seen in surveillance footage walking into the daycare. Then, about two minutes later, per that footage cited in the complaint, he exits the daycare through a back alley holding “two shopping bags weighted with contents.”

Divino Niño Daycare in the Bronx.Google Maps

Google Maps

In a later search of the daycare, investigators recovered drugs and several kilo presses used to package narcotics into kilo-sized bricks.

Inside a hallway closet near the daycare bathroom, investigators recovered “a packaged white, powdery substance weighing approximately one kilogram that field-tested positive for fentanyl,” per the complaint. The fentanyl package had been placed inside a vacuum bag “stacked on top of pieces of a children’s play mat.”

Ultimately, investigators recovered “100 grams and more of mixtures and substances containing a detectable amount of para-fluorofentanyl, an analog of fentanyl,” as well as “400 grams and more of mixtures and substances containing a detectable amount of fentanyl,” and “one kilogram and more of mixtures and substances containing a detectable amount of heroin,” according to the four-page superseding indictment filed in the case.

Investigators found a trapdoor with drugs inside Divino Niño Daycare, following Nicholas Feliz Dominici’s Sept. 15, 2023 fentanyl poisoning death.New York Police Department

New York Police Department

“I’m very sorry, but one of the things my child care inspectors are not trained to do is look for fentanyl,” Dr. Ashwin Vasan, the city’s health commissioner said at the press conference, noting at the time that inspectors were not trained to search for synthetic opioids.

“But maybe we need to start,” the commissioner added.

The case of Mendez’s cousin, Carlisto Acevedo Brito, who is also charged in the case, is still on-going. Per his online court docket, he entered a plea of not guilty to the federal charges on Oct. 12, 2023.

source: people.com