A Bronx apartment building containing two daycares had to be evacuated after a suspected fentanyl dealer was spotted tossing powdered narcotics out of a window during a drug raid, officials said Wednesday.
Antonio Cabrera cupped the drugs in his hands and tossed them out a third-floor window as law enforcement stormed his apartment inside the Morris Ave. building near E. Burnside Ave. in Fordham Heights on Monday, according to Special Narcotics Prosecutor Bridget Brennan.
Members of a drug task force had been surveilling Cabrera’s apartment for about a week when an NYPD K9, Mulk, alerted to the presence of narcotics outside the suspect’s door around 2:30 p.m., prosecutors said.
Agents then heard a commotion coming from inside the apartment and entered to find Cabrera attempting to dispose of the evidence.
The move spurred NYPD emergency service unit and hazmat teams to evacuate 14 children from two daycares located on the building’s first floor.
“It is a miracle that none of the children in the daycare center or people on the sidewalk were injured,” said Bronx DA Darcel Clark, who joined Brennan in announcing the arrest.
A search of the apartment, which was coated in white powder, led to the recovery of nearly 10 pounds of suspected fentanyl, along with equipment necessary to process and package the drug, according to prosecutors.
A DEA laboratory analysis on the recovered substances is pending.
Cabrera was arrested at the scene and charged with criminal possession of a control substance, reckless endangerment, and criminally using drug paraphernalia. He was ordered held without bail after pleading not guilty in Manhattan Criminal Court on Tuesday, court records show.
Fentanyl is a highly potent synthetic opioid that’s been behind the deaths of multiple children at Bronx daycares, including in 2023 when the drug claimed the life of a 1-year-old boy.
Little Nicholas Feliz-Dominici was among four children exposed to the deadly drug after they were put down for a nap at El Divino Nino daycare located on Morris Ave. near E. 196th St. in Fordham Manor around 1 p.m. on Sept. 15 that year.
About an hour and a half later, they began experiencing overdose symptoms. Police responding to a 911 call for the ailing children would later find a kilogram of fentanyl stashed beneath one of the mats the children used for sleeping.
El Divino Nino daycare owner Grei Mendez, 36, and her suspected accomplice, Carlisto Acevedo Brito, 41, were charged with narcotic possession with intent to distribute resulting in death, and conspiracy to distribute narcotics resulting in death.