"It was really a substantial narcotics operation that was working out of that location and they were using the location as cover," Special Narcotics Prosecutor Bridget Brennan said.
They say there was more than a kilo of cocaine. Some of it was kept inside a child's insulated lunchbox in a basement fridge, but also inside the daycare center, a hundred 50 grams of crack-cocaine, a thousand oxycodone pills and, in a stash house across the street, a loaded gun and $160,000 hidden inside a t-v stand's hidden compartment.
"He was well aware of the risk - the risk that he was exposing all of those children to," Brennan said.
Neighbors and parents are now well aware of it, too. We found one woman's son went to the daycare center for a whole year.
"I'm upset about it, for my child," she said.
Authorities say they caught 41-year-old Gregorio Hanley selling drugs outside the center, which lead to a search warrant. His 31-year-old wife, Johanna Vasquez, who ran Fun World is also facing drug charges.
What's clear is the children were dangerously close to a life-threatening business.
"The children would've been in very close proximity to the drugs," Brennan said.
Hanley and Vasquez are charged with multiple counts of criminal sale of a controlled substance, criminal possession of a controlled substance, criminal use of drug paraphernalia, endangering the welfare of a child and unlawful dealing with a child.
Hanley is also charged with criminal possession of a weapon.
Ferrer faces two counts of criminal possession of a controlled substance.
