Authorities search for spouse of New York nursery owner following child's fatal fentanyl overdose

Police in New York are currently searching for the husband of the owner of a nursery where a one-year-old child died from a suspected drug overdose and three other children fell ill. The child, Nicholas Dominici, died after inhaling fentanyl at the nursery operated by Grei Mendez, who has already been arrested. Police discovered the lethal drugs hidden beneath the nap mats of the children. Surveillance footage showed Mendez's husband fleeing the scene before the police arrived. The authorities are still trying to determine the identity of Mendez's husband, who is described as a co-conspirator. No reward has been offered yet for his arrest. When the police were called to the Divino Niño nursery in the Bronx on Friday night, they administered Narcan, an overdose-reversing drug, to revive three of the children. During a search of the nursery, the police found one kilogram of fentanyl, which was hidden under a mat where the children had been sleeping earlier. Mendez, 36, the owner of the nursery, and her tenant, Carlisto Acevedo Brito, 41, are facing federal charges related to narcotics possession and conspiracy resulting in death. Mendez contacted her husband multiple times after finding the children ill, before contacting 911. Her husband then arrived and removed several full shopping bags from the nursery. Prosecutors alleged that Mendez also deleted around 20,000 text messages from her phone before her arrest, but authorities were able to recover them. Mendez's lawyer denies the charges against her and claims she was unaware of the drugs in the nursery. Fentanyl, a potent synthetic painkiller, has been responsible for numerous deaths in the US. The drugs recovered from the nursery had the potential to kill 500,000 people, according to the police. The nursery underwent a surprise visit from city health inspectors on September 6, but no violations were identified. Mayor Eric Adams defended the inspectors, stating that they did their job and blamed those who were supposed to protect the children at the nursery for failing to do so. The father of a two-year-old boy who survived the fentanyl exposure noted that there were warning signs about the nursery. In an unrelated case, police officials announced that drugs and automatic weapons were seized from a home in Queens where a young child resides. The contraband was found in a room near where the 10-year-old sleeps. Fentanyl's impact has spread widely across the US, with an increasing number of deaths involving very young children. Prosecutors are filing charges against parents whose children have died after consuming the lethal drug. In 2010, fewer than 40,000 people died from overdoses in the country, with less than 10% attributed to fentanyl. However, by 2021, the annual number of drug overdose deaths had exceeded 100,000, with an estimated 66% being linked to fentanyl.