Police Find Fentanyl In Daycare 'Trap Door' After 4 Children Poisoned

BRONX, NY — Nearly a week after four children were apparently poisoned—one of them fatally—by fentanyl at a daycare in the Bronx, the NYPD has revealed that a stockpiling of drugs and other paraphernalia was recovered in a trap floor in the play area at the center.

Three children at Divino Niño daycare were hospitalized with serious injuries after being poisoned by fentanyl on the afternoon of Sept. 15, United States Attorney Damian Williams said at a news conference Wednesday. The fourth child, a one-year-old boy, died.

Two defendants, Grei Mendez, 36, and Carlisto Acevedo Brito, 41, along with their co-conspirators were found to have been running a fentanyl distribution business out of the daycare, according to Williams.

Federal charges have been filed against Mendez and Acevedo Brito in connection with the poisonings, officials said. If they are convicted, they face a maximum sentence of life in prison and a minimum sentence of 20 years, Williams said.

"Parents entrusted Grei Mendez with the care of their children," Williams said. "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."

The case "has shocked the conscience of a city already reeling from the devastating effects of the fentanyl epidemic," Williams said, adding that addressing the fentanyl epidemic is a "top priority" for him as a U.S. Attorney.

"We brought cases against the targets and cartels in Mexico that manufacture fentanyl, against individuals and companies in China that supply the cartels with precursor chemicals needed to make this poison, and we brought cases against the traffickers who moved the fentanyl through our streets," Williams said. "But this case is different."

The children, all under three years old, were poisoned at a place they should be kept safe—not "surrounded by a drug that could kill them in an instant," Williams noted.

Mendez, Acevedo Brito, and others conspired from at least July through September to distribute fentanyl, including at Divino Niño, according to officials.

They stored large quantities of fentanyl and other narcotics at the center, including a kilogram stored on top of children’s playmats, officials said. Also hidden were "kilo presses" designed to compress drugs.

After the children overdosed and prior to the arrival of emergency responders, the defendants removed evidence from the daycare, officials said.

Before Mendez called 911 to help the children who were unresponsive, she called a co-conspirator, who came to the daycare and took the evidence out the back door in shopping bags, according to officials.

Acevedo Brito lived in a bedroom inside the daycare one of the co-conspirators, officials said. Authorities said they found on his phone "numerous messages suggestive of his involvement in narcotics trafficking."

Calling the case "every parent's worst nightmare," NYPD Police Commissioner Edward A. Caban said that all of those responsible "will be held accountable."