The husband of th Bronx day care owner charged in a tot’s fentanyl-poisoning death was seen for the first time since his bust in a Mexican mugshot Wednesday — as sources revealed new details about his past.
Felix Herrera, 38, is seen wearing a solemn expression and a black Puma T-shirt in the picture taken after he was nabbed by Mexican authorities Tuesday while trying to get away on a bus near Sinaloa, law enforcement sources told The Post.
Herrera had been on the lam since the death of 1-year-old Nicholas Feliz Dominici at the Divino Niño Daycare in Kingsbridge on Sept. 15.
Last year, Herrera was in the middle of another drug-related death when someone he allegedly identified as his own brother overdosed and died, according to law enforcement sources.
The sources said he placed a frantic 911 call to cops in the Bronx on Oct. 20, 2022, to report that he found his brother, later identified as 42-year-old Javier Maldonado, unconscious on the floor — with police finding a stash of pills in the bedroom.
“You would think that someone who lost the relative to drugs would’ve been more careful,” said a law enforcement source.
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Felix Herrera, 38, in his first mugshot since his arrest in Mexico on Tuesday. Herrera allegedly ran a drug-selling operation at his wife’s Bronx day care center. He was tracked down by US Marshals and Mexican authorities.
Herrera also has a prior arrest on his rap sheet for trespassing and violating an order of protection in Queens in 2013, police sources said.
Law enforcement sources said Herrera was spotted in Texas on Sunday and crossed the southern border into Rosalia on Monday, with federal agents and Mexican cops on his tail.
The manhunt ended Tuesday when he was taken into custody in Sinaloa by Mexican authorities, sources said.
He is expected to be turned over to US officials and extradited to New York.
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One-year-old Nicholas Feliz Dominici died after being exposed to fentanyl at Divino Niño Daycare in the Bronx on Sept. 15.
Yeissy Dominici/Facebook
Police said the child care facility, run by Herrera’s wife, 36-year-old Grei Mendez De Ventura, was a front for a drug-peddling business run by the couple and two cohorts.
Nicholas and three children at the day care were sickened at the center, allegedly from exposure to fentanyl stored under two trap doors and in closets on top of play mats.
Mendez and Carlisto Acevedo Brito, 41, Herrera’s cousin, were arrested the day after Nicholas’ death and charged with murder, assault and child endangerment.
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The Divino Niño Daycare in the Bronx was allegedly a front for a drug-selling operation, police said. On Sept. 15, 1-year-old Nicholas Feliz Dominici was exposed to fentanyl there and died. Four people are in custody in the case.
Christopher Sadowski
This week, a third alleged accomplice, Renny Antonio Parra Parades, 38, was hit with federal drug charges for his role in the alleged drug operation — with Herrera still on the run .
Police described him as “the main player” in the alleged drug business .
He had last been seen on surveillance footage released by federal prosecutors, which captured him sneaking out the back door of the day care center lugging bags allegedly containing drugs — just minutes before cops showed up to tend to the sickened children.
