Husband of NYC day care owner charged in toddler's fentanyl death nabbed in Mexico
The fugitive husband of the Bronx day care owner charged in the fentanyl-poisoning death of a toddler was hunted down in Mexico Tuesday after about 10 days on the lam, law enforcement sources told The Post.
Felix Herrera – who was captured on surveillance video sneaking out the back of the drug-peddling Kingsbridge childcare center minutes before first responders found 1-year-old Nicholas Feliz Dominici dying from the drug – was nabbed on a bus headed to Sinaloa on Tuesday.
The US Marshal Service tracked Herrera to Texas, where they got a tip that he was holing up south of the border, according to the sources.
Mexican authorities captured the fugitive, working with agents from the US Drug Enforcement Administration and the Marshals Service, the sources said.
Herrera, 34, is expected to face extradition to the US and become the fourth suspect charged in the heart-breaking case.
His wife, Grei Mendez De Ventura, 36, who owns Divino Niño Daycare, and his cousin, Carlisto Acevedo Brito, 41, were charged with murder, assault and child endangerment by Bronx prosecutors the day after little Nicholas died and three other tots were sickened by fentanyl at the childcare facility Sept. 15.
The pair and a third alleged accomplice Renny Antonio Parra Paredes, 38, also face federal drug charges of conspiracy to distribute narcotics resulting in death.
Authorities said they ran a narcotics mill out of the basement day care center – where drugs and paraphernalia were found stashed on top of children’s play mats and in two trap doors underneath where the toddlers ate, played and slept, according to police.
Law enforcement sources have said Herrera was believed to be the “main player” in the alleged drug operation.
Prosecutors said Mendez found the children unresponsive shortly before 2:39 p.m. on Sept. 15 and made three calls before calling the cops – one to a coworker and two to her husband.
She didn’t call 911 until 2:52 p.m., allegedly giving her husband enough time to rush to the daycare from the couple’s apartment next door and to make off with bags believed to be filled with drugs, as captured in the surveillance footage, court papers state.
Authorities had been looking for him since – with the search expanding outside the country, to his native Dominican Republic, sources said Monday.
Mendez, who along with Brito and Paredes, is being held behind bars without bail allegedly also deleted more than 21,000 messages with her husband before police arrived, federal prosecutors said.
Sources said Mendez’s own 2-year-old son was himself exposed to drugs last year and treated without police being summoned.
Her attorney has claimed that she didn’t know about the drugs hidden at the day care.
The lawyer, Andres Manuel Aranda, did not return calls from The Post seeking comment.
Additional reporting by Tina Moore
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