The husband of the Bronx day care owner who was charged in a 1-year-old boy’s fentanyl-poisoning death was hit with federal drug conspiracy charges Thursday — as he was flown from Mexico to California for an extradition hearing.
Felix Herrera, 38, who was nabbed on a bus by Mexican authorities after 10 days on the run on Tuesday, is charged with conspiracy to distribute narcotics resulting in death in a federal complaint unsealed by Manhattan federal prosecutors.
“Herrera’s arrest on the other side of the nation reflects our tireless pursuit of Herrera, who fled the daycare even as the children he abandoned inside were suffering from his poisonous trade,” Manhattan US Attorney Damian Williams said in a statement.
The announcement came as Herrera was being flown from Tijuana to San Diego, where he later appeared in federal court before Magistrate Judge Michael S. Berg and was ordered to be sent to New York to face the charges.
Herrera is the fourth suspect to face federal charges in the Sept. 15 death of 1-year-old Nicholas Feliz Dominici, who authorities said was exposed to a lethal dose of fentanyl at the Divino Niño Daycare in the Kingsbridge section of the Bronx.
Police said the child care facility, which was run by Herrera’s wife, 36-year-old Grei Mendez, was a front for a drug-peddling operation where three other kids were sickened.
Felix Herrera, 38, was on the run for 10 days before he was nabbed in Mexico on Tuesday. Herrera, his wife and two others are charged with running a drug operation out of a Bronx day care center where a tot died from fentanyl. nypost
Authorities say the Divino Niño Daycare in the Bronx was a front for a drug operation. On Sept. 15, a toddler died from fentanyl exposure there. The facility’s owner, Grei Mendez, her husband and two others are charged in the case. Christopher SadowskiFederal prosecutors this week released surveillance footage that captured Herrera sneaking out the back of the day care center lugging bags believed to be filled with drugs — just minutes before cops responded to a 911 call about the sick babies.
Nicholas was pronounced dead, while the other tots – a pair of 2-year-old boys and the 8-month-old sister of one of them – were hospitalized and treated with the opioid overdose-reversal drug Narcan, authorities said.
Prosecutors have alleged that before calling 911, Mendez phoned her hubby twice, and that later, when she was at an NYPD precinct talking to cops, she sent him a message tipping him off that law enforcement was looking for him.
Nicholas Feliz Dominici, 1, fell ill on Sept. 15 and was pronounced dead after being exposed to lethal levels of fentanyl at the Divino Niño Daycare in the Bronx. Authorities said the day care was a front for a drug-peddling operation. Yeissy Dominici/FacebookHerrera was also caught on surveillance video inside the day care center around noon on the day the children were sickened, and left about five minutes later “holding what appears to be a bowl,” according to the complaint against him.
The complaint also revealed that Mendez spoke to cops and waived her right to have a lawyer present when she was arrested.
Mendez and Herrera’s cousin, Carlisto Acevedo Brito, 41, were arrested Sept. 16 and charged with murder, assault and child endangerment and are being held without bail at Rikers Island.
Earlier this week, Renny Parra Paredes, 38, was hit with federal drug conspiracy charges in the case.
Herrera, described by sources as “the main player” in the drug-peddling operation, took off after the children were found and remained on the lam for 10 days — with the US Marshals Service hot on his trail.
Federal agents who tracked Herrera to Texas got a tip that he was in Mexico, where authorities took him into custody as he tried to flee on a bus to Sinaloa — a major fentanyl distribution center.
Additional reporting by Marjorie Hernandez
