A fourth person has been arrested in connection with the death of a 1-year-old at a day care center in the Bronx, the NYPD said.
According to law enforcement sources, Felix Herrera Garcia was apprehended on a bus Tuesday afternoon in Sinaloa, Mexico.
Authorities say Herrera Garcia is the husband of 36-year-old Grei Mendez, the woman who officials say was the owner of the day care where four children were poisoned by a substance believed to be fentanyl. According to a criminal complaint provided by the U.S. attorney’s office, three of the children had the effects of their poisoning reversed by Narcan, but the fourth, a 1-year-old boy, died of his injuries.
It is unclear at this time what charges Herrera Garcia is facing.
Mendez, 36, and Acevedo Brito, 41, face federal charges of one count of conspiracy to distribute narcotics resulting in death and one count of possession with intent to distribute narcotics resulting in death. Both counts carry a mandatory minimum sentence of 20 years in prison and a maximum sentence of life in prison.
According to officials, Acevedo Brito lived in a room inside the day care center that was locked.
Another suspect, Renny Antonio Parra Paredes, 38, faces one count of federal conspiracy to distribute narcotics resulting in death, records show. The charge carries a mandatory minimum sentence of 20 years in prison and a maximum sentence of life in prison.
The criminal complaint accuses Parra Paredes, Mendez and Acevedo Brito of conspiring to distribute fentanyl at the day care center from at least July through September. “Large quantities of narcotics” were kept at the site of the day care, including a kilogram of fentanyl stored on top of playmats, and more narcotics were hidden in “trap” compartments near an area where the children played and slept, according to the criminal complaint.