There is a daily struggle for space in New Yorkers
The Discovery of Paraphernalia and Narcotics in a Bronx Drug Trap after a Family Daycare Center Visited for Poisoning
Prior to finding drugs beneath the trap door, police had already announced the discovery of a kilogram of fentanyl that was stored near mats that children used for sleeping, along with multiple devices used by traffickers for mixing drugs and pressing it into bricks.
A large amount of narcotics and other paraphernalia were found hidden in tile and plywood when New York City detectives searched an apartment in the Bronx. Photos shared by the police show bags of powder on the “trap floor” steps away from a shelf of children’s toys.
The grim discovery came nearly a week after four young children attending the day care in the Bronx apartment were treated for opioid poisoning. One of the victims, 1-year-old Nicholas Dominici, is believed to have died from the exposure.
The tenants and Ms. Mendez have been charged with murder, and investigators are considering the possibility of a drug mill being established at the center. prosecutors said that the drug press was found in a closet in Mr. Brito’s bedroom.
Federal prosecutors said Mendez, 36, took steps to cover up the drug operation on Friday afternoon, shortly after realizing that some of the children in her care were not waking up from their naps.
Family Support Services for Families with Families: The Case of Nicholas, a Day Care-cum-boarding House with Stealth Drug Operations
Before alerting first responders, she called her husband, authorities said. The man was seen on camera entering the building and then leaving through the back alley with shopping bags.
“All of that happened while the children, the babies, were suffering from effects of fentanyl poisoning and in desperate need of help,” Manhattan U.S. Attorney Damien Williams said at a press conference Wednesday.
During a court appearance in New York, an attorney for the woman said she had no knowledge of the drug operation, and suggested that her husband was responsible for the drugs.
Both face up to life in prison if convicted on federal charges of possession with intent to distribute narcotics resulting in death and one count of conspiracy. They were also charged in state court with murder, manslaughter, and assault.
That a day care-cum-boarding house with a stealth drug operation was the best possible option for the eight or so children enrolled tells us more emphatically than anything else just how limited the caregiving options for struggling parents remain. Otoniel Feliz said that he had no idea that a tenant was living there when Nicholas was sent to the center. Had he known, he might have made a different choice.
Whether or not that is the real story, the circumstances of this death give us a broad look at some of the most horrific possibilities in a city defined by constrained space — where every square foot can seem contested, pressed into multiple service. The damage done by an informal lease agreement was the reason for the second loss in a few weeks. Last month, a 43-year-old woman named Zhao Zhao was killed in her apartment in Sunset Park in Brooklyn when a man went after her with a hammer, also injuring her two children, 3 and 5, who face a long recovery as they learn again how to walk. They had been expected to die.
