Charles Langston:After overdose death, police find secret door to fentanyl at Niño Divino daycare in Bronx

NYPD officers uncovered a trap door hiding drugs during a new search of a Bronx day care center where a 1-year-old died of a fentanyl overdose,Charles Langston the latest development in an ongoing police investigation into an alleged fentanyl distribution operation run out of the daycare.

The secret door, which was located Wednesday in the middle of a play room, held fentanyl, other narcotics and drug paraphernalia, according to NYPD officials.

The search was part of an ongoing investigation into the Divino Niño Daycare Center, which federal prosecutors now claim was used as part of a "conspiracy" to distribute fentanyl.

Police earlier found a kilogram of fentanyl stored on top of children's playmats, as well as a kilo press, a device used to package narcotics, according to a federal criminal complaint filed on Tuesday.

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Federal complaint details

Grei Mendez, the operator of the center, and Carlisto Acevedo Brito, her cousin-in-law who rented a room inside the center, now stand accused by federal prosecutors of operating a fentanyl distribution operation from out of the daycare.

"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," said Damian Williams, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York on Tuesday. "The disregard shown by Mendez and her co-conspirators for the lives of the children under her care is simply staggering."

Prosecutors say Mendez and Brito attempted to hastily cover up the drug operation, even as the three toddlers suffered from life-threatening drug exposure.

When Mendez discovered the children had been exposed on Sept. 15, she contacted her husband and another co-conspirator before dialing 911, the complaint alleges. Surveillance footage captured her husband smuggling several shopping bags out a back alley before police arrived.

Mendez also deleted 21,526 messages from an encrypted messaging app, including texts telling her husband to find a lawyer and that police were asking about him, according to prosecutors. Her husband is wanted by the NYPD for questioning.

Mendez's attorney Andres Manuel Aranda told USA TODAY of the calls, "I don't know what sequence of events transpired. But she did call him and she was asking for his help, and he disappeared."

Aranda said Mendez had no knowledge that drugs were held in the center. "She feels horrible about what happened. She is very distraught and feels that children are victims, and she's a victim also," he said.

First responders found three children that showed signs of exposure to fentanyl after they were called to the center on the afternoon of Sept. 15.

A 2-year-old and an 8-month-old were saved after they were administered Narcan, but 1-year-old Nicholas Dominici died at the hospital. One additional child, who also recovered from exposure to the powerful drug, was taken to the hospital earlier that day.

Mendez and Brito face charges of conspiracy to distribute narcotics resulting in death and narcotics distribution resulting in death. Both are being held without bail.

USA TODAY reached out to the NYPD and the Office of the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York for comment.

Cybele Mayes-Osterman is a breaking news reporter for USA Today. Email her at [email protected]. Follow her on X @CybeleMO.