Investigators found a trap door in the Bronx day care center where a 1-year-old boy died last week after being exposed to fentanyl in the apartment, officials said.
Detectives armed with trash bags and evidence boxes returned to the Highbridge home where several children overdosed on the dangerous opioid, including the baby boy who died.
Cops in hazmat suits and respirators walked past a makeshift memorial for young Nicholas Feliz-Dominici, a sad display that featured flowers, candles and a small stuffed bear.
Among the new discoveries in the Morris Ave. apartment was a trap door, according to investigators, which could help explain why city inspectors found no red flags in the El Divino Nino day care despite multiple inspections, including an unannounced Sept. 6 visit to the facility.
Day care owner Grei Mendez, 36, and her suspected accomplice Carlisto Acevedo Brito, 41, were previously charged with narcotic possession with intent to distribute resulting in death, and conspiracy to distribute narcotics resulting in death, according to federal prosecutors.
The two suspects were already facing charges in Bronx Criminal Court of murder and attempted murder in little Nicholas’ death, and for allowing three other children at the daycare to overdose on fentanyl.
A third suspect, Mendez’s husband, is still being sought, and anyone helping him evade the law could face charges, too, said Bronx District Attorney Darcel Clark.
“Why would you want to help somebody that murdered a baby in a day care center?” Clark said. “Putting your own life on the line for somebody that is so callous that they don’t even care about children that they will run a drug operation out of the daycare center. Don’t do it. You’ll be in trouble. And he needs to turn himself in because we are going to find him, as well.”
The prosecutor stopped short of calling the daycare business a front for the drug operation.
”I don’t know if you could call it a front. But we have evidence to show that it was more than just a day care center,” she said. “It’s clear that there was a drug operation that was happening.”
After the arrests, law enforcement officers found a packaged white, powdery substance weighing approximately one kilogram that field-tested positive for fentanyl.
The substance was located inside a bag that was stacked on top of pieces of a children’s playmat, court documents said.
But a tip led police back to the apartment, where they returned with a search warrant.
“In the floor area of the play room where the children were sleeping we found a large amount of narcotics that include what we believe to be fentanyl, as well as other narcotics,” said NYPD Lt. John Russo.
“It was in a trap underneath the floor that you need a device to lift up. You need specific instructions on how to do it. We were able to get those instructions, figure it out, lift that up and thankfully found these other narcotics because at some point, someone else would be living in that apartment.”
He described the trap door as 4 feet by 6 feet.
Authorities said the suspects compounded their crimes by trying to hide or remove the evidence, even before calling 911.
A neighbor said he saw medics arrive last week when the children overdosed.
“That s–t f—ed me up,” he said. “I’m a street guy and I don’t condone s–t like that.”
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