It was an open secret that the Bronx day-care center where a tot died from suspected fentanyl exposure was operating as a drug front, a neighbor told The Post on Monday — raising crucial questions about how the site managed to pass a state inspection just days before.

Divino Nino Daycare owner Grei Mendez De Ventura, 36, put a business sign outside the basement space in the Kingsbridge building touting the day-care site more than a year ago — yet there were never any kids going in and out, claimed a woman who lives next door.

“We all said, ‘Drugas.’ How could you not know?” said the longtime resident, 69, who declined to give her name. “It was a day-care for a year with no children. For one year, she had a day-care with no children but people go in. But no babies?

“A day-care with no children and men coming in and out. Yes, we knew something. We knew something, something was not good happening there,” the woman said.

The neighbor claimed Ventura wouldn’t even allow her own child to go into the tiny facility, which became licensed to legally operate as a day-care in May — four months before a 1-year-old boy died and at least three other children were sickened there Friday. (Read more from “Day Care Where Tot Died of Suspected Od Was ‘Obvious Drug Front’ With Adults Going In and Out — But Just Passed Inspection” HERE)

Photo credit: Alvin Smith via Flickr

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