Federal prosecutors charged a third suspect Monday in the fentanyl-related death of a 1-year-old boy for allegedly conspiring to hawk the lethal opioid out of the Bronx day care center where the child and three other toddlers were sickened earlier this month.
Renny Antonio Parra Paredes, 38, was charged with conspiracy to distribute narcotics resulting in death for his alleged role in the drug-front childcare facility in Kingsbridge, Manhattan federal prosecutors said.
Day-care owner Grei Mendez De Ventura, 36, and accused cohort Carlisto Acevedo Brito, 41, were hit with federal drug charges last week in the Sept. 15 death of little Nicholas Feliz Dominici. The pair also face state murder and child endangerment charges.
“I promised last week that we would continue to work to bring those involved in the child poisonings at Divino Nino daycare to justice,” Manhattan US Attorney Damian Williams said in a statement.
“Since then, this office and our law enforcement partners have worked around the clock to identify and apprehend additional individuals who are responsible,” he said. “Today’s arrest is one more step toward obtaining justice for the child victims of this heinous offense and their families.”
Prosecutors said Paredes, who is nicknamed “El Gallo” – Spanish for rooster – was part of a crew that had been peddling drugs out of the Divino Niño Daycare on Morris Avenue since at least July, according to a federal complaint.
“There, despite the daily presence of children, including infants, Paredes and his co-conspirators maintained large quantities of narcotics,” prosecutors said in a statement.
The drugs were allegedly sold in packages stamped “Red Dawn.”
In one exchange on Aug. 22, Paredes allegedly messaged Brito over an encrypted app that he was “going to take the garbage out” – an apparent reference to narcotics – because police were outside, according to the complaint.
Authorities are still looking for Mendez’s husband in connection with the toddler’s death, with the manhunt now expanding to the couple’s native Dominican Republic, The Post reported earlier on Monday.
The fugitive was described by police sources as “the main player” in the alleged drug-selling operation.
Surveillance photos released by prosecutors Monday captured him lugging bags allegedly filled with drugs from the daycare center and into their apartment next door just minutes before cops arrived.
Cell phone records linked Mendez to Brito and Paredes, according to court documents.
Paredes showed no emotion as he stood before a judge in Manhattan federal court Monday afternoon, wearing a white shirt and a pair of jean shorts, along with a black headset for translation.
He was ordered held without bail. Mendez and Brito have been locked up without bail since their arrests.
Prosecutors said Mendez found the children unresponsive shortly before 2:39 p.m. on Sept. 15 and made three calls before calling the cops – one to a coworker and two to her husband.
She didn’t call 911 until 2:52 p.m., allegedly giving her husband enough time to rush to the daycare from the couple’s apartment next door and to make off with the bags, as captured in the surveillance footage.
He has been in the wind since.
Mendez allegedly also deleted more than 21,000 messages with her husband dating to 2021 before turning her phone over to cops, prosecutors said.
The three other sickened kids — a pair of 2-year-old boys and one of their 8-month-old sisters — were saved with the overdose-reversal drug Narcan, Mayor Eric Adams said last week, but Nicholas was pronounced dead shortly after he was found unconscious by first responders.
One of the young victims had been picked up by a parent about two hours before the 911 call and taken to a local hospital separately.
Authorities said they uncovered a kilo of fentanyl sitting on mats the children slept on, according to court papers. They also seized several “kilo presses” used to combine the drug with cocaine or heroin.
Cops also found a stash of fentanyl in a hallway closet near the bathroom inside a bag stored on top of “pieces of a children’s playmat.”
Last week, police said they found an additional cache of drugs hidden under two trap doors in a follow-up search at the building.
Prosecutors said the hidden compartments – known as “traps” – were “located on the floor of a room in which the children played and slept,” the statement said.
Inside, authorities also found materials used to package drugs for retail distribution – including glassine envelopes stamped in red with “RED DAWN,” prosecutors said.
According to the complaint, Paredes told federal investigators that he sometimes visited the day care center on Wednesdays and Saturdays.
He also told the feds he had been staying with his aunt since the toddler’s death at the facility.
During a search of the apartment where Paredes had been staying on Saturday, investigators found similar glassine envelopes as those discovered in the “traps” at the day care center – as well as the “RED DAWN” stamp itself, prosecutors said.
The search also turned up two Ziploc bags filled with a grayish powder and a “rectangular brick-shaped package” – apparently containing drugs, the feds said.
Tools used in the packaging and distribution of narcotics were also found by investigators – including strainers, tape, a grinder, plastic bags and digital scales, prosecutors said.
“The truly disgraceful allegations in this case continue to shock the senses,” NYPD Commissioner Edward Caban said in a statement. “This latest charge proves that our determination to eradicate the threat of illicit fentanyl and save lives cannot — and will not — stop.”
