Grei Mendez, 37, the operator of El Divino Niño Daycare Center in Kingsbridge Heights where one-year-old Nicholas Feliz Dominici died on Sept. 15, 2023, from fentanyl poisoning has pleaded guilty to federal charges brought against her following the incident, prosecutors announced on Tuesday, Oct. 29.
“Grei Mendez has just admitted she conspired to maintain and distribute large quantities of dangerously toxic fentanyl in a Bronx Daycare center, a place where parents expected their children would be protected and safe,” said Damian Williams, U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York.
He continued, “Mendez’s reprehensible conduct resulted in the needless and tragic death of a child, and the poisoning of three others. From the beginning, this case has shown the senseless collateral damage caused by the fentanyl epidemic, and should remind us all that the demand for illegal narcotics so often puts innocent bystanders at risk while drug traffickers ruthlessly pursue profits. This Office will continue to protect New Yorkers from the grave threat fentanyl presents.”
As reported, Mendez’s husband, Felix Herrera Garcia 36, was recently sentenced to 45 years in prison for trafficking fentanyl out of the now-closed daycare, located on 2707 Morris Avenue, which resulted in Nicholas’s death, and the poisoning of three other infants, after he pleaded guilty earlier this year…