The executive director of the San Jose police union imported opioids from overseas in a scheme to distribute the drugs in the U.S., federal prosecutors say.
Joanne Marian Segovia was charged Tuesday with attempting to import a controlled substance in a scheme that took place from 2015 to 2023.
Segovia, 64, was arrested as the result of a “Homeland Security investigation into a network that was shipping controlled substances into the San Francisco Bay Area from abroad,” according to the Department of Justice.
The San Jose Police Officers’ Assn. did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Times.
Bay Area television station KTVU reported that the union said in a statement that it had no knowledge of the allegations against Segovia, who is a civilian.
According to a complaint filed this week by the U.S. attorney’s office, from October 2015 to January this year, Segovia received shipments at her home from countries including China, India and Hungary.
The shipments — 61 in total — were mailed with manifests such as “wedding party favors” and “chocolates and sweets” but contained thousand of dollars’ worth of synthetic opioid pills such as tramadol and tapentadol.
“The complaint alleges that Segovia used her office at the San Jose Police Officers’ Association to distribute controlled substances,” the Justice Department said in a news release.
In one shipment, Segovia allegedly sent a package to a woman in North Carolina using the union’s UPS account.
She was interviewed by federal investigators in February but allegedly continued to order the substances afterward.
In March, federal agents seized a package — labeled as a “clock” — in Kentucky that was addressed to Segovia that contained valeryl fentanyl, the department said.
If convicted, Segovia faces a maximum of 20 years in prison.
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