By Jonathan Dienst - NBC News
The husband of the owner of a Bronx daycare where a 1-year-old boy died after allegedly being exposed to fentanyl has been arrested in Mexico, three sources told NBC News.
The man was seen on daycare security recordings on Sept. 15, the day 1-year-old Nicholas Dominici became ill and died, according to a criminal complaint.
Three other children were hospitalized.
Three people have been charged in the case: Grei Mendez, 36, who owns the daycare; Carlisto Acevedo Brito, 41, and Renny Antonio Parra Paredes, 38, federal authorities said.
NYPD photo of bags found at daycare. New York Police Department
The husband was taken into custody by Mexican state police and agents from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and U.S. Marshals Service, the three sources told NBC News.
He was on a bus bound for Sinaloa when he was detained, the sources said. His name has not been revealed.
Paredes, Mendez and Brito worked together to traffic drugs and kept a kilo of fentanyl in the daycare on the children's mats, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York.
Researchers found "traps," or hidden compartments, on the floor of the Divino Niño nursery. In a room where the children were sleeping, they found the alleged drugs and equipment to package them, prosecutors said.
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All four children are believed to have suffered poisoning from fentanyl exposure, federal prosecutors have said.
Fentanyl is a powerful synthetic opioid that is used to legally treat severe pain. But it is abused, or mixed with other drugs such as heroin, and is one of the drivers of the opioid crisis and the rise in overdose deaths in the United States, according to authorities.
