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

A New York woman who ran a daycare in the Bronx – outfitted with a trapdoor hiding large quantities of drugs – where a 1-year-old boy died of fentanyl poisoning last 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 a statement that 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.

“From the beginning, this case has shown the senseless collateral damage caused by the fentanyl epidemic,” Williams added. “And should remind us all that the demand for illegal narcotics so often puts innocent bystanders at risk while drug traffickers ruthlessly pursue profits.”

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

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

Three young children – including baby Nicholas – were rushed from Divino Niño Daycare in the Bronx to the hospital on Sept. 15, 2023, after Mendez called 911 to report that they were unresponsive, per the amended complaint obtained by PEOPLE. Nicholas was pronounced dead at the hospital.

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.

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 Mexico and sentenced earlier 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.”

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.

The case sparked public concern when city inspectors admitted that they had conducted a “surprise” visit to the daycare earlier that month, finding it fully compliant with a 40-item checklist, including the proper storage of “all medications, toxic substances,” officials said at a September 2023 press conference following Nicholas’s death and covered by The New York Times.

“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.