SAN JOSE, California — The former head of a police union in Northern California acknowledged her guilt in federal court on Tuesday regarding charges of illegally importing synthetic opioid pills from various nations, including India.
Joanne Marian Segovia, previously the executive director of the San Jose Police Officers’ Association, faced charges last year for unlawfully bringing in thousands of valeryl fentanyl pills. She is looking at a possible prison sentence of up to two decades.
During her court appearance in San Jose, Segovia entered her plea as part of a deal with the U.S. Attorney’s Office, which agreed to lessen the seriousness of the charges against her, according to reports. When the judge asked her to affirm her understanding of the guilty plea, she simply replied with “yes.”
Beginning in 2015, Segovia had numerous drug packages sent to her home in San Jose from countries such as India, Hong Kong, Hungary, and Singapore. The packages were falsely labeled, describing the contents as “wedding party favors,” “gift makeup,” “chocolate and sweets,” and “food supplement,” as stated in a federal criminal complaint.
At times, she placed these orders using her work computer and, on at least one occasion, utilized the union’s UPS account to send drugs domestically, according to federal prosecutors.
Following an internal investigation correlating with her legal troubles, the police association terminated Segovia. As a civilian employee since 2003, her roles included organizing funerals for fallen officers, acting as the liaison between the department and the families of officers, and planning various events and fundraising efforts for the union.
Federal authorities revealed that in 2019, officers from U.S. Customs and Border Protection intercepted a package addressed to her home containing Tramadol, a synthetic opioid valued at $5,000. They sent her a notification letter about the seizure. The following year, another confiscated package of Tramadol worth $700 also led to a seizure notification.
However, an investigation into Segovia did not commence until 2022, when her name and address were discovered on the cellphone of a suspected drug dealer linked to a network distributing controlled substances from India to the San Francisco Bay Area, as detailed in the complaint. Prosecutors noted that this particular drug trafficking organization has disseminated hundreds of thousands of pills across 48 states.
