Grei Mendez De Ventura, the owner of a New York City daycare center in Bronx, New York faces federal charges after multiple children were found with “fentanyl in their systems” last week, which also resulted in the death of a 1-year-old child.

Ventura and neighbor Carlisto Acevedo Brito, 41, were each being charged with conspiracy to distribute narcotics resulting in death and narcotics distribution resulting in death, a spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York told Fox News Digital on Tuesday.

Who is Grei Mendez De Ventura?

Grei Mendez De Ventura, 36, owns the Divino Nino daycare in the Bronx borough. Investigators are still looking for Ventura’s husband.

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U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said that the case has “shocked the conscience of a city already reeling from the devastating effects of the fentanyl epidemic.”

“It’s inexcusable, and it’s the reason that they’re now in federal custody, facing federal charges that carry a maximum sentence of life in prison and a minimum sentence of 20 years in prison,” he said. “The defendants poisoned four babies and killed one of them because they were running a drug operation from a daycare center — a place where children should be kept safe, not surrounded by a drug that could kill them in an instant.”

“As alleged in the complaint, before emergency personnel arrived at the daycare. Before they arrived, Mendez and a co-conspirator tried to cover up what happened. Seconds before Mendez called 911, she called a co-conspirator. Minutes later, a co-conspirator arrived at the daycare,” he also said. “Minutes later, he left the daycare and fled out the back alley, carrying two full shopping bags and all of that happened while the children, the babies were suffering from the effects of fentanyl poisoning and in desperate need of help.” he added.

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NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny said during a press conference Monday: “The daycare center there, we discovered a kilogram of fentanyl in an area that was used to give the children naps. It was laid underneath a mat where the children had been sleeping earlier. Additionally, we found three kilo presses. This device is commonly used by drug dealers when packaging large quantities of illegal narcotics.”

Both Ventura and Brito were arrested on Saturday on 11 counts, including depraved-indifference murder, assault and child endangerment. Their arrest came after a child died and three others were hospitalized the day before. 

Nicholas Dominici, one, died on Friday and three other children, including two 2-year-old boys and an 8-month-old girl, were found unresponsive in the basement of the daycare. 

“They seemed to be demonstrating an exposure to an opioid,” Kenny said. “Quick thinking FDNY, EMS personnel administered Narcan to these three children and removed them to Montefiore Hospital. Unfortunately, the 1-year-old did not survive and died at the hospital. Medical testing came back on all three children. All three children had fentanyl in their systems.”

“NYPD detectives later learned that an additional child, only 2 years old, had been removed from the same location at 12:15 that afternoon by his mother. This child also began to exhibit symptoms of opioid exposure,” Kenny added. “The child was brought the Bronx Lebanon Hospital, where hospital staff quickly administered Narcan, saving that child’s life.”