Daycare Owner Whose Fentanyl Trafficking Operation Killed 1-Year-Old Sentenced to 45 Years

A New York City daycare owner whose childcare facility doubled as a narcotics stash house has been sentenced to nearly half a century in prison, after a 1-year-old in her care died from exposure to fentanyl.

Grei Mendez, 37, pleaded guilty in October to one count of conspiracy to distribute narcotics resulting in death and serious bodily injury and two drug possession charges for the September 2023 death of a 1-year-old and poisoning of three other children in her care.

She was sentenced to 45 years in prison on Monday, March 3, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Southern District of New York said in a statement.

The child, 22-month-old Nicholas Feliz Dominici, was killed after the children’s play mats had been stored under a 1-kilogram brick of fentanyl at the Divino Niño daycare in the Bronx, PEOPLE previously reported.

In their statement, prosecutors said Mendez and her co-conspirators operated the narcotics business out of the daycare between June 2022 and September 2023, during which time they kept more than 11 kilograms of fentanyl and heroin in their daycare — across “secret compartments, or traps, located underneath the floor tiles in the playroom.”

Mendez’s cousin, 41-year-old Carlisto Acevedo Brito, was also arrested at the time on charges of assault, criminal possession of a controlled substance and narcotic drug, endangering the welfare of a child and manslaughter, among others, per the NYPD.

He pleaded not guilty to federal charges in October 2023.

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Mendez also received five years of supervised release.

“No punishment can make up for a child lost,” acting U.S. Attorney Matthew Podolsky said in Monday’s statement. “But today’s sentence sends the message that this Office and our law enforcement partners will work tirelessly to bring to justice anyone who uses children as a shield in the drug trade.”

If you suspect child abuse, call the Childhelp National Child Abuse Hotline at 1-800-4-A-Child or 1-800-422-4453, or go to www.childhelp.org. All calls are toll-free and confidential. The hotline is available 24/7 in more than 170 languages.