From July to September 2023, you could say there have officially been three deaths among children due to contact or exposure to fentanyl. All cases have occurred in the United States. The most recent took place at a daycare center, where one baby died and three were taken to a hospital.

The daycare is located in New York, specifically in The Bronx, and because of the shocking case, “federal authorities filed charges on Tuesday, September 19, against the owner” of the place where the child died, “allegedly intoxicated by fentanyl at a incident’. that three others also overdosed,” the EFE agency reported.

The boy would turn two years old in November. It was from a Dominican father, who cannot believe what happened and declared with pain: “In what spirit can you mix narcotics with children, it is something terrible,” published Univisión.

Otoniel Feliz talks about his son Nicholas. “He was a happy child, he knew how to count from 1 to 10“he told journalist Mariela Salgado, of Univision 41.

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“The children don’t wake up”: the call from the daycare

Little Nicholas had only been at the Divino Niño nursery for a week, his father confirmed.

On Wednesday, September 20, El Universo published that “Grei Méndez, 36, and the man to whom he rented a bedroom in the apartment where the childcare center operated in the Bronx, Carlisto Acevedo Brito, 41, have been arrested” for this event.

Authorities accuse them of ‘murder, involuntary manslaughter and assault’. Méndez and Acevedo pleaded not guilty.

Police said last Tuesday they were looking for “Méndez’s husband to question him.”

According to EFE, “he was seen in a video leaving the daycare center – which opened last January – with two full shopping bags on the day of the incident, last Friday.”

They kept fentanyl in a room

Méndez’s lawyer, Andrés Aranda, quoted in EFE, pointed out that the woman “did not know that her husband’s cousin, to whom she rented a room, kept drugs in the daycare.”

On Friday, September 15, “the police and fire brigade went to the scene after a call from Méndez that the children were not waking up.”

Authorities found “in the apartment a kilo of fentanyl wrapped in a package that was on the children’s play mats (…),” the Spanish agency said.

During a raid on the daycare center, one kilo of fentanyl was found under a mat where the children had recently slept.

Joseph Kenny, detective, on BBC Mundo

In addition to Nicholas, those affected are two two-year-old children and an eight-month-old girl.

EFE quoted The New York Times about the medical tests apparently “revealing that the three intoxicated minors had fentanyl in their systems.”

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Justice for Nicholas

Otoniel Feliz, whose partner is Zoila Dominici, told Univision he hopes for justice. “Whether guilty or not, the real perpetrator knows he has to pay,” he said.

The fatal victim’s father said the daycare “recently passed a surprise inspection.”

He told Univisión that they were looking for it “through a homepage, which should ensure that it is a good place for children (…) How about you start mixing narcotics with children, it’s a terrible thing”, he stated in shock.

“We believe the defendants poisoned four babies and murdered one as they ran a drug operation from a daycare center.”

Manhattan District Attorney Damien Williams on BBC Mundo

Asked about the surprise inspection that Nicholas’ father said, Ashwin Vasan, the city’s health commissioner, said, according to the BBC: “I’m very sorry, but one of the things that childcare inspectors are not trained to do is search for fentanyl. Maybe they’ll have to do it after all.” (JO)