A New York daycare director and her alleged accomplice are being prosecuted for drug trafficking that led to the poisoning of four young children, one of whom died, while fentanyl was stored at the facility, the Department of Transportation announced Tuesday. American justice.
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Grei Méndez, 36, manager of the Divino Niño daycare in the Bronx neighborhood, and Carlisto Acevedo Brito, 41, who lived at the establishment, were arrested on Saturday, police said in a news release. release.
The day before, the emergency services intervened in the nursery after a call from Grei Méndez and found four children under the age of three drunk, one of whom, a one-year-old, died, according to the same source.
The two defendants, as well as others, had been involved in trafficking fentanyl since at least July, including at the daycare where they “stored large quantities.”
“Instead of caring about the well-being of these children, Grei Méndez and his accomplices put them in immediate danger, trafficking drugs and storing deadly fentanyl in the same space where the children ate, slept and played,” outraged the federal prosecutor of the District. Southern New York Damian Williams, quoted in the press release.
Fentanyl, a powerful synthetic opioid that has flooded the drug market in the United States in recent years, is the main cause of the approximately 110,000 overdoses recorded in the country in 2022.
