SJ Union exec charged with illegal drug importation
The executive director of the San Jose Police Officers Association has been charged with trying to illegally import synthetic opioid drugs and distribute them for more than seven years, federal prosecutors announced Wednesday. SF Chronicle and CBS News Bay Area reports below.
Chron:
Joanne Marian Segovia, 64, has led the staff of the police union since July 2003. Prosecutors said that between October 2015 and January 2023, she had at least 61 drug shipments mailed to her home in San Jose from foreign lands such as Hong Kong, Hungary, India and Singapore.
The shipments bore such labels as “Wedding Party Favors” and “Chocolate and Sweets,” but officers intercepted and opened five of them between July 2019 and January 2023 and found they contained thousands of narcotic pills, including the synthetic opioids Tramadol and Tapentadol, prosecutors said.
Prosecutors also said that in 2021, Segovia sent one drug supplier a photo of a shipment that used the account of the San Jose Police Officers Association — an indication that she had used her office there to distribute the drugs.
The charge is punishable by up to 20 years in prison. Segovia and the Police Officers Association could not be reached for comment late Wednesday.
Read the whole thing here.
More from CBS News Bay Area:
...The criminal complaint was filed by United States Attorney Ismail J. Ramsey and Homeland Security Investigations Special Agent in Charge Tatum King on March 27, and unsealed Thursday.
According to the complaint, Segovia is the Executive Director of the SJPOA. The complaint "alleges that Segovia used her personal and office computers to order thousands of opioid and other pills to her home and agreed to distribute the drugs elsewhere in the United States."
The complaint alleges that between October 2015 and January of this year, Segovia had at least 61 shipments mailed to her home. Countries of origin included Hong Kong, Hungary, India, and Singapore. The manifests for these shipments declared the contents of the packages with labels like "Wedding Party Favors," "Gift Makeup," or "Chocolate and Sweets." The complaint stated certain packages were valued at thousands of dollars' worth of drugs.
The complaint also alleged that Segovia communicated using encrypted WhatsApp messages to plan the logistics for receiving and sending pill shipments and used her office at the San Jose Police Officers' Association to distribute controlled substances and even used the SJPOA's UPS account for a shipment . According to the complaint, Segovia continued to order controlled substances even after being interviewed by federal investigators last month.
Read the whole thing here.
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