(Dmytro “Henry” Aleksandrov, Headline USA) A California police union executive director allegedly ran a drug ring from her home, while using her office computer and UPS account to order and distribute drugs.
Joanne Marian Segovia, who has worked for the San Jose Police Officers Association for more than 20 years, was charged on Wednesday with attempting to unlawfully import Valeryl fentanyl, a synthetic opioid, according to the New York Post.
Authorities said that if she is convicted, Segovia faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in federal prison.
The 64-year-old allegedly received at least 61 packages at her San Jose home from countries like China, Canada and India between Oct. 2015 and Jan. 2023, the 13-page complaint stated.
Prosecutors said that the packages were marked as food supplements, wedding party favors, makeup, chocolates and other items to disguise the drugs, like deadly synthetic opioids and Tapentadol, which is normally used to treat severe pain from nerve damage caused by diabetes.
Segovia exchanged messages on WhatsApp between Jan. 2020 and March 2023 with someone who was using a country code from India, according to the prosecutors.
“I’m so sorry. I’m on a business trip because we had 2 officers that got shot! I should be home tomorrow night so ill [sic] get them shopped as soon as I can,” she wrote in one of the messages sent on May 2, 2022.
Segovia took a photo of a shipment she sent to a North Carolina woman and used the San Jose Police Officers’ Association UPS account, the complaint stated.
Homeland Security agents learned about the operation while it was investigating an Indian network that is known to ship drugs into the US.
According to the complaint, the investigators found messages from the network that mentioned “J Segovia” with an address in San Jose and the words, “180 pills SOMA 500mg.”
Segovia continued to order drugs even after she was interviewed by federal agents in Feb. 2023. She was eventually arrested on March 13 after investigators seized a parcel in Kentucky that was addressed to her, marked as containing a “clock” and came from China.
