A New York man has been sentenced to 45 years in prison for trafficking fentanyl from a daycare center where a toddler died and three others were poisoned after being exposed to the drug, federal prosecutors said Wednesday.
Felix Herrera Garcia, 35, of the Bronx, was also sentenced to five years of supervised release, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York said in a statement.
Garcia pleaded guilty in June to conspiracy to distribute narcotics causing death and possession with intent to distribute narcotics causing death. His attorneys listed in the lawsuits could not immediately be reached for comment Wednesday evening.
Herrera Garcia, his wife and two other people were charged in connection with the September 15, 2023, poisoning of children at the Divino Niño daycare center in the Bronx. Herrera Garcia was captured in Mexico after fleeing the country, authorities said.
Nicholas Dominici, who was 22 months old, died and two other children were found unconscious at the center, where prosecutors said “a fentanyl factory” was operating.
A third child was lethargic at home and unresponsive after being picked up.
According to a criminal complaint, the surviving children were given the overdose drug naloxone, known by the brand name Narcan.
From October 2022 to September 2023, Herrera Garcia and other defendants conspired to sell drugs from the daycare, prosecutors said. Herrera Garcia and co-conspirators stored more than 25 pounds of fentanyl in “secret compartments, or traps, located under the floor tiles in the daycare playroom where the children played, ate and slept daily,” prosecutors said. .
U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said in the statement Wednesday that Herrera Garcia recklessly put babies at risk of exposure to fentanyl.
“This case demonstrates the deadly reach and scale of the fentanyl epidemic and the profound damage it is inflicting on American lives, including the lives of the most vulnerable among us,” Williams said. “This Office and our law enforcement partners will work tirelessly to ensure that anyone who harms or endangers the lives of children in connection with their deadly drug activities is brought to justice.”
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
