Federal prosecutors said Wednesday that a New York man had been sentenced to 45 years in prison for trafficking fentanyl out of a daycare center where three children were poisoned after being exposed to the drug and a toddler died.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York stated in a statement that Felix Herrera Garcia, 35, of the Bronx, was also given a five-year supervised release sentence.
In June, Garcia entered a guilty plea to conspiracy to distribute drugs that cause death and possession with intent to distribute drugs that cause death.
In relation to the poisoning of children at the Divino Niño day care center in the Bronx on September 15, 2023, Herrera Garcia, his spouse, and two other individuals were charged. After escaping Mexico, Herrera Garcia was apprehended there, according to police.
Prosecutors claimed that “a fentanyl mill” was running at the facility where Nicholas Dominici, a 22-month-old infant, died and two other youngsters were discovered unconscious.
After being picked up, a third youngster arrived home drowsy and unresponsive.
A criminal complaint claims that the overdose reversal medication naloxone, marketed under the name Narcan, had to be administered to the youngsters who were still alive.
Herrera Garcia and other defendants allegedly plotted to sell drugs out of the daycare center between October 2022 and September 2023, according to the prosecution.
More than 11 kg of fentanyl were stored by Herrera Garcia and his accomplices in “secret compartments, or traps, located underneath the floor tiles in the playroom of the Daycare, where the children played, ate, and slept on a daily basis,” according to the prosecution.
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Herrera Garcia irresponsibly exposed infants to fentanyl, according to a statement released by U.S. Attorney Damian Williams on Wednesday.
“This case demonstrates the deadly reach and scope of the fentanyl epidemic, and the profound damage it inflicts on American lives, including the lives of the most vulnerable among us,” Williams stated. “This Office and our law enforcement partners will work tirelessly to ensure that anyone who harms or risks the lives of children in connection with their deadly narcotics activities will be brought to justice.”
NBC: After toddler’s death, man sentenced to 45 years for trafficking fentanyl from Bronx day care
