The executive director of the San Jose police officers’ union has been charged with buying and distributing fentanyl for more than eight years, according to a complaint filed by the U.S. Attorney in U.S. District Court in San Jose.
Joanne Marian Segovia, 64, was charged following a months-long investigation by the Department of Homeland Security, which had been following international shipments of drugs into the Bay Area. The complaint against her, announced by U. S. Attorney Ismail J. Ramsey and Homeland Security Investigations on March 29, was filed on March 27 and unsealed the next day.
Segovia is charged specifically with the attempted unlawful importing of valeryl fentanyl.
Fentanyl is described by the Drug Enforcement Administration as “a potent synthetic opioid drug approximately 100 times more potent than morphine and 50 times more potent than heroin.” Federal health officials said more than three-fourths of the 100,000 drug overdose deaths each year in the U.S. are attributable to fentanyl.
The complaint filed in San Jose said Segovia used her police union office computers and her personal computers, and on at least one occasion, the union’s UPS account, to order thousands of opioid and other pills to her home and agreed to distribute the drugs elsewhere in the United States. In one of her interviews with federal investigators, she said she worked for the San Jose Police Department, not the officers’ union.
Segovia is on leave from her position with the union, where she has been executive director since 2003.
In a statement, union spokesperson Tom Saggau said, “Last Friday we were informed by federal authorities that one of our civilian employees was under investigation for distribution of a controlled substance and the POA has been fully and completely cooperating with the federal authorities as they continue their investigation. The POA immediately placed the civilian employee on leave and as is standard procedure cut off all access to the POA. No additional individual at the POA is involved or had prior knowledge of the alleged acts. The board of directors is saddened and disappointed at hearing this news and we have pledged to provide our full support to the investigative authorities.”
The complaint alleges that between October 2015 and January 2023, Segovia had at least 61 shipments mailed to her home, originating from countries including Hong Kong, Hungary, India and Singapore.
The manifests for these shipments, according to Homeland Security, declared their contents with labels like “Wedding Party Favors,” “Gift Makeup,” or “Chocolate and Sweets.”
But between July 2019 and January 2023, officials intercepted and opened five of these shipments and found that they contained thousands of pills of controlled substances, including the synthetic opioids Tramadol and Tapentadol. Certain parcels were valued at thousands of dollars’ worth of drugs.
Investigators also said that Segovia used encrypted WhatsApp communications to plan the logistics for receiving and sending pill shipments.
According to the complaint, Segovia continued to order controlled substances even after being interviewed by federal investigators in February 2023. On March 13, 2023, federal agents seized a parcel in Kentucky, containing valeryl fentanyl, addressed to Segovia. The package allegedly originated from China on March 10, and declared its contents as a “clock.”
In her February interview with Homeland Security, the complaint said Segovia insisted that she had ordered “supplements,” and that there was nothing unusual or “out of the ordinary” about it, the complaint states.
Segovia, who was about to leave for vacation, refused to show agents her CashApp transaction history, the complaint states.
When Segovia returned, she called investigators to tell them the orders were for “another woman whom she identified as a family friend and housekeeper” who suffered from “a substance abuse disorder,” the complaint says
“[I]t all leads to her,” Segovia allegedly said, telling the agents that the notion occurred to her “like a light bulb” after the previous Homeland Security interview. Segovia also claimed the housekeeper had impersonated her on WhatsApp, which had been used to facilitate the deals, and was able to do so because “she knows so much about me,” according to the complaint.
Segovia faces a maximum statutory sentence of 20 years.
