Fentanyl facility steps from NYC day care posed massive danger: DEA

BELMONT, the Bronx (PIX11) -- A major fentanyl processing facility is what investigators said they found in an apartment in the Bronx, but the greater concern, they said, is that it's just steps away from one day care facility and is two floors below another one.

Operating dangerous drug facilities in plain sight is all too common a tactic used by dealers and distributors, say Drug Enforcement Administration leaders. However, this was a particularly hazardous case, they said, as evidenced by the fact that it left some first responders sick.

They'd responded to Apartment 1A in the residential building at 780 Garden St. on Tuesday afternoon. In that same apartment on Wednesday afternoon and into the night, technicians from the Department of Environmental Protection were still on scene, conducting an investigation and industrial cleanup. They had to secure the scene after large quantities of fentanyl had been removed.

"Here's the really frightening thing about this," said Frank Tarentino, the special agent in charge of the DEA for New York City, in an interview. "These drug traffickers have no real experience in, or degree in chemistry. [But] they're mixing highly toxic and highly combustible chemicals and solvents in a residential area."

Tarentino said that it posed a variety of dangers, which was proven by what happened to some of the people who responded to the scene. An NYPD detective had to be treated by medics in an ambulance, and a state trooper was rushed to the hospital -- both had become sick from fentanyl exposure. 

They were part of a task force of DEA agents, NYPD Emergency Services officers, FDNY special operations, and state police. Most were in hazmat suits when they responded, starting around mid-afternoon on Tuesday. 

That was minutes after an undercover agent bought four bricks of fentanyl at the apartment, according to law enforcement sources. It led to the arrest of the apartment's resident, Xiex Cruz, 66. 

A resident of a different floor of the building commented on what she called the worst aspect of the situation. 

"That's crazy," said Tiffany Knox, "to know that there's a day care here."

She was referring to the day care center located on the same floor as the apartment where a significant quantity of fentanyl and other harmful chemicals and equipment were found. In addition to the four one-kilogram bricks of fentanyl purchased by the undercover agent, there were also six more one-kilo bricks found at the location, as well as three plastic bags of the drug, and large amounts of loose powder fentanyl as well, according to the Office of the Special Narcotics Prosecutor.

The bust happened a year after Bronx day care owner Grei Mendez and her husband Felix Herrera-Garcia were sentenced to up to 45 years in prison for fentanyl exposure at the facility that Mendez owned, and from which Herrera-Garcia sold the illicit drug. Exposure to the fentanyl on scene killed Nicholas Dominici, a 22-month-old toddler who was one of the children at the day care. 

Meanwhile, at the da ycare that's on the same floor as the latest bust, the owner spoke briefly with PIX11 News. 

"Sabemos nada," she said in Spanish, without giving her name -- "We know nothing."

Even though the bust was in the Bronx, it's being handled by the city's special narcotics prosecutor. Its cases are adjudicated at Manhattan Criminal Court. There, Xiex Cruz, the resident at the apartment where the fentanyl was discovered, faces charges of criminal possession of a controlled substance, as well as criminal sale of a controlled substance. 

Each one of those charges could result in up to 20 years in prison, if he's found guilty.