Federal Charges For Bronx Daycare Owner After Encrypted Messages Found To Be Deleted
The proprietor of the Bronx daycare center, where a tragic incident resulted in a toddler’s fatality due to fentanyl exposure, now faces federal drug charges. Recently unsealed court documents expose her alleged actions, including the deletion of over 20,000 messages to her husband, who remains at large, and her tip-off to him about law enforcement’s search.
Grei Mendez De Ventura, a 36-year-old in charge of Divino Niño Daycare, along with her cousin-in-law Carlisto Acevedo Brito, 41, purportedly concealed their real operation, which authorities assert was a fentanyl drug production facility, under the guise of a child care center.
However, while authorities conducted investigations at the facility following the tragic death of one-year-old Nicholas Feliz Dominici, who, according to police, had inadvertently inhaled the deadly opioid, De Ventura reportedly deleted 21,526 encrypted messages exchanged between March 2021 and September 15, 2023, according to court records.
This audacious act unfolded while De Ventura was at the NYPD’s 52nd Precinct stationhouse, as subsequently disclosed by prosecutors in Manhattan federal court.
Upon retrieving some of the erased messages, investigators discovered that De Ventura had informed her husband that law enforcement officers were inquiring about him and advised him to seek legal counsel.
Manhattan US Attorney Damian Williams, speaking at a news conference to announce the charges on Tuesday, characterized this appalling case as having “shocked the conscience of our city.” He called upon drug dealers engaged in the sale or adulteration of fentanyl without the knowledge of buyers to cease “pushing this poison,” emphasizing its devastating impact on lives and the severe consequences awaiting those who are apprehended, convicted, and incarcerated in federal prisons.
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