Felix Herrera Garcia, the husband of a New York City daycare owner, was apprehended in Sinaloa, Mexico, following an extensive manhunt lasting over a week. Garcia is linked to the recent tragic incident in a Bronx daycare where a 1-year-old, Nicholas Dominici, succumbed to fentanyl exposure.
Surveillance footage reportedly captured Garcia fleeing the facility with bulky shopping bags on the day children suffered from the drug’s exposure. Court records showed images of a suspect carrying bags out of the daycare’s back alley.
Besides Dominici’s tragic death, three more children, aged between eight months and two years, were critically affected and required Narcan for treatment. Medical tests confirmed the presence of fentanyl in one child’s urine.
In a follow-up search at the Bronx daycare, authorities made startling discoveries. They found a kilogram of fentanyl stored amidst kids’ play mats and equipment used to mold drugs into brick forms for potential sale. Shockingly, a hidden floor compartment under the play area revealed more fentanyl, various other narcotics, and associated paraphernalia.
Grei Mendez, the daycare’s proprietor, and Garcia’s spouse, along with Carlisto Acevedo Brito, Garcia’s cousin and Mendez’s tenant, were the initial arrests. Both are now facing federal and state charges, including narcotics possession with the intent to distribute resulting in death, conspiracy to distribute narcotics leading to death, and murder.
Federal officials have expressed their determination to ensure everyone connected to the daycare tragedy is held responsible. In the latest development, a third individual, Renny Antonio Parra Paredes, was taken into custody and charged with conspiracy to distribute narcotics.