Shocking incident in New York: A one-year-old boy died after being exposed to fentanyl at a daycare. Now it turns out that the drug was hidden under the mattress on which he slept in the dorm.
Little Nicholas Dominici, who just a week before the tragedy entered the residence, allegedly died of a fentanyl overdose last Friday. Three other children, aged eight months to two years in total, were taken to the hospital on suspicion of drug poisoning at the same Bronx dormitory.
Fentanyl plague: 1-year-old boy dies as a result of exposure to drug hidden in New York City daycare | Reuters
A search of the residence revealed a kilogram of fentanyl—enough to kill half a million people. The NYPD says they found three presses for packing the drug. Today, indictments were filed against the daycare operator Grai Mendes, 36, and her rental partner, Carlisto Acevedo-Brito, 41. The two are charged with murder, manslaughter and drug possession for trafficking. "We believe that the defendants poisoned the four children and killed one of them because they were engaged in drug trafficking from within the dormitory," Manhattan District Attorney Damian Williams said in a statement. The defendants were detained until the end of the proceedings.
Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid originally labeled as a painkiller, but 50 years ago it was identified as a psychoactive substance that in certain amounts can be fatal. It is 50 times stronger than heroin and in recent years has been considered the main reason for the rise in drug use in the United States.
"I love him and miss him," Otoniel Felis, Nichols' father, told CBS. Nicholas was the youngest of five children of the Felice-Dominici family.
In the meantime, it turned out that inspectors from the municipal health bureau had made a surprise inspection of the park, a few days before the disaster, and found nothing. "I'm sorry to say, but one of the things our inspectors aren't qualified to do is look for fentanyl," said New York City Health Bureau Chief Ashwin Wassan. "Maybe we should start."
Following the incident, New York City Mayor Eric Adams called for war on the fentanyl epidemic.
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