A kilogram of fentanyl was discovered on top of playmats at a New York daycare centre where a one-year-child died after being exposed to the drug, prosecutors said.
Nicholas Dominici had been at the nursery for just a week when he died of a suspected drug overdose on Friday, while three other children were taken to hospital.
Daycare centre owner Grei Mendez and a man who rented a room from her, Carlisto Acevedo Brito, were charged with narcotics conspiracy counts on Tuesday. The pair have also been charged in state court with murder of “depraved indifference.”
Prosecutors allege that a kilo of opioid fentanyl was stored on top of playmats used by children at the centre, which was run out of a small Bronx apartment, which it is believed the children inhaled.
They also found multiple devices for mixing the powder with other narcotics and pressing it into bricks.
Authorities said they are seeking a third suspect, Mendez’s husband, over the death at Divino Niño nursery.
Federal prosecutors have accused Mendez, 36, of playing a role in both a drug distribution ring and her husband's escape.
On Friday afternoon, after discovering the three children in her care were not waking up from their nap, she made three calls, including two to her husband, before dialling 911, prosecutors said.
Within minutes of those calls, the husband was seen entering the Bronx apartment, then whisking at least two full shopping bags out of the building through a back alley.
Emergency personnel arrived shortly after to find the children showing signs of opioid intoxication.
A lawyer for Ms Mendez said his client denies the charges and was unaware that drugs were being kept in the nursery.
Federal judge Jennifer Willis ordered Mendez held in federal custody without bail pending trial.
Both Brito and Mendez face the possibility of life in prison if convicted on the federal charges.
At a news conference on Tuesday, US Attorney Damien Williams said the news of Nicholas Dominici’s death had “shocked the conscience of a city already reeling from the devastating effects of the fentanyl crisis."
At an unrelated briefing on Tuesday, New York City Mayor Eric Adams added: “We've just become so screwed up as a society. We got to get our acts together.
“I don't know what's wrong with us. We had fentanyl in a day care centre."
