California police union executive director ran fentanyl operation from home

The office manager of a Northern California police union allegedly imported illegal synthetic opioids from India and other countries and at least once used her computer and work address and the union’s UPS account to ship the drugs. within the country.

Joanne Marian Segovia, executive director of the San Jose Police Officers Association, was charged with attempting to illegally import valeryl fentanyl, a synthetic opioid, federal prosecutors said in a statement Wednesday. If she is found guilty, she faces up to 20 years in prison.

As of 2015, Segovia received at least 61 drug shipments mailed to her home in San Jose from India, Hong Kong, Hungary and Singapore with manifests listing their contents as ‘wedding gifts’, ‘gift makeup’, ‘ chocolates and candies’ and ‘food supplement,’ according to a federal criminal complaint unsealed Tuesday.

It was not immediately known if Segovia, 64, has an attorney who can speak on his behalf.

Tom Saggau, a spokesman for the police union in San Jose, said Segovia, a civilian, has worked for the union since 2003, planning funerals for officers killed in the line of duty, being the liaison between the department and the families of the officers. and organize office festivities and fundraisers.

He said federal officials informed the union last Friday that Segovia was under investigation and that no one else in the union was involved in or knew of Segovia’s alleged actions.

The revelation shocked his colleagues, Saggau said.

“We had no reason to suspect her,” he said, adding that the union’s board of directors vowed to fully support the federal investigation.

Federal prosecutors said that in 2019, US Customs and Border Protection officers intercepted a package sent to her home containing $5,000 worth of Tramadol, a synthetic opioid, and sent her a letter saying they were seizing the pills. The following year, CBP again intercepted a shipment of Tramadol worth $700 and sent it a seizure letter, court records show.

But federal officials didn’t begin investigating Segovia until last year when investigators found his name and address on the cell phone of an alleged drug dealer who is part of a ring that ships Indian-made controlled substances to the Bay Area. of San Francisco, according to the complaint.

That drug ring has distributed hundreds of thousands of pills in 48 states, federal prosecutors said.

Segovia used the WhatsApp messaging service and personal and office computers to order thousands of opioid tablets and other pills to his home and agreed to distribute the drugs elsewhere in the United States, prosecutors said.

On at least one occasion in 2021, Segovia shipped the illicit drugs to a North Carolina address using the police union’s UPS account, prosecutors said. That address is linked to at least five seizures of illicit drugs, they said.

He allegedly imported illegal synthetic opioids from India and other countries and at least once used his work computer and address (pictured) and the syndicate’s UPS account to ship the drugs within the country.

Investigators found hundreds of photos in a WhatsApp chat on Segovai’s cell phone, including an image of the UPS shipping bill and another of a computer screen showing a PayPal payment to an Indian name and business cards from the Segovia police union below.

‘From my training and experience, I know that shippers of controlled substances often send receipts and tracking numbers as proof that they did, in fact, ship a package.

I believe she offered the receipt provided by Segovia as proof that she sent a package to the recipient in North Carolina,” David Vargas, a special agent with Homeland Security Investigation, wrote in the affidavit.

According to the complaint, Segovia continued to order controlled substances even after being interviewed by federal investigators in February.

On March 13, federal agents seized a package in Kentucky, containing valeryl fentanyl, headed for Segovia. The package allegedly originated from China three days earlier and declared its contents as a “watch,” prosecutors said.