California Police Union Executive Director Charged with Running Global Fentanyl Operation from Home
Federal officials have recently charged a California police union executive director for allegedly running a drug ring from her home and using her office computer and UPS account to order and distribute fentanyl and other drugs.
Joanne Marian Segovia, who has worked for the San Jose Police Officers Association since 2003, was charged on Wednesday with attempting to unlawfully import a synthetic opioid called Valeryl fentanyl.She faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in federal prison if convicted, authorities said.Police union president Sean Pritchard was shocked by the charges, telling NBC Bay Area, “She’s been the grandma of the POA.”“This is not the person we’ve known, the person who has worked with fallen officers’ families, organized fundraisers for officers’ kids — just not who we’ve known over a decade.”
If the allegations prove true, Segovia truly had a global drug operation, and she reportedly kept it running even after the investigation started.
At least 61 shipments containing drugs worth thousands of dollars coming from countries including Hong Kong, Hungary, India and Singapore were shipped to Segovia’s home between October 2015 and January this year, according to the complaint.“The manifests for these shipments declared their contents with labels like ‘Wedding Party Favors,’ ‘Gift Makeup,’ or ‘Chocolate and Sweets,’” the United States Attorneys Office for Northern California said in a press release.“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,” the press release said.In February 2023, Segovia was interviewed by federal investigators but she continued to order drug shipments, including a package in March containing valeryl fentanyl seized by federal agents in Kentucky, according to the complaint.
Investigators used Segovia’s social media history to show she appears to have used the police union UPS account to send out the substances.
Segovia used WhatsApp messaging service and her personal and office computers to order thousands of opioid tablets and other pills to her home and agreed to distribute the drugs elsewhere in the United States, prosecutors said.On at least one occasion in 2021, Segovia shipped the illicit drugs to a North Carolina address by using the police union’s UPS account, prosecutors said. That address is linked to at least five illicit drug seizures, they said.Investigators found hundreds of photographs in a WhatsApp chat on Segovia’s cellphone, including an image of the UPS shipping slip and another one of a computer screen showing a PayPal payment to an Indian name and Segovia’s police union business cards under it.’Based on my training and experience, I know that shippers of controlled substances often send receipts and tracking numbers as proof that they in fact sent a package,’ David Vargas, a special agent for Homeland Security Investigation, wrote in the affidavit.’I believe that the receipt provided by Segovia was offered by her as proof that she sent a package to the North Carolina addressee.’
Meanwhile, Governor Gavin Newsom has unveiled a “Master Plan” to fight the fentanyl crisis that involves providing medications to counter over-doses rather than fighting the Chinese suppliers, Mexican gangs, and corrupt officials involved in supplying these deadly substances.
The Master Plan provides a comprehensive framework to deepen the impact of these investments — including through a new CalRx effort where California will seek to manufacture its own opioid overdose reversal drug Naloxone. California will further save lives through an additional $96 million in funding in the Governor’s 2023-24 proposed budget:
- $79 million for the Naloxone Distribution Project to meet increased demand and provide more Naloxone to communities than ever before;
- $10 million for grants for education, testing, recovery, and support services;
- $4 million to make fentanyl test strips more widely available; and
- $3.5 million in Prop 98 funding to provide overdose medication to all middle and high schools.
If Newsom is suggesting that the best way to protect children of middle school age from drugs as deadly as fentanyl is an enhanced antidote supply, then I would recommend Californians with children make plans to relocate to another state . . . as soon as possible. There are no serious people in power in the Golden State.
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