Joanne Segovia, the former executive director of the San Jose Police Officers’ Association, recently pleaded guilty in federal court to charges related to the illegal importation of synthetic opioids from overseas. This plea could result in a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.
Reports from the San Jose Mercury News indicate that Segovia’s plea was part of a deal with federal prosecutors, who agreed to lessen the severity of the charges against her. When prompted by the judge to confirm her understanding of the plea, she simply responded with “yes.”
According to the federal indictment, Segovia began receiving shipments of drugs at her San Jose home as early as 2015, sending dozens of packages from countries such as India, Hong Kong, Hungary, and Singapore. These packages were labeled with benign descriptions like “wedding party gifts,” “gift cosmetics,” “chocolate and candy,” and “nutritional supplements.”
Federal prosecutors noted that Segovia occasionally used her work computer to place orders and had utilized the union’s UPS account for domestic shipment of the drugs.
Following an internal investigation that concluded after the accusations arose, the police association terminated Segovia’s employment. Union officials mentioned that Segovia had been with the organization since 2003, where she organized funerals for fallen officers and acted as a liaison between the department and officers’ families, as well as coordinating office celebrations and fundraising events.
In 2019, U.S. Customs and Border Protection intercepted a package containing $5,000 worth of tramadol addressed to Segovia’s home and sent her a notice regarding the seizure. Court records reveal that the following year, another shipment containing $700 of tramadol was also intercepted, and a similar notification was sent to her.
However, it wasn’t until 2022 that federal investigators began looking into Segovia after finding her name and home address on the phone of a suspected drug trafficker tied to a smuggling ring distributing Indian-manufactured controlled substances. Prosecutors stated that this network has distributed hundreds of thousands of pills across 48 states.
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