A one-year-old boy has died of a drug overdose at a daycare center in New York City. After days of speculation on the death of little Nicholas Dominici, the turning point in the investigation has arrived.
A kilo of fentanyl was found under the mattress where the children take their afternoon nap. Three other children ended up in hospital with similar symptoms after being exposed to the very powerful opioid. They were saved thanks to Narcan, an emergency drug used to reverse opioid overdoses.
Police believe the children, all aged between eight months and two years, inhaled the fentanyl while they slept.
The owner of the establishment Grei Mendez, 36, and the employee Carlisto Acevedo Brito, 41, were arrested and are accused of manslaughter and drug possession.
Fentanyl is an opioid that is increasingly widespread on the drug market; it has a potency at least 80 times greater than that of morphine. Its derivatives, synthesized, are sold as "synthetic heroin" or mixed with heroin itself.
The “Divino Nino” nursery in the Bronx ended up in the eye of the storm: “They poisoned four children, killing one, because they were running a drug operation from a nursery,” said Manhattan prosecutor Damien Williams .
(Unioneonline/L)