Joan Marion Segovia, a 20-year-old employee and executive director of the San Jose Police Officers Association, has been charged with importing and distributing fentanyl, muscle relaxants and other drugs through a complex international mail scheme.
Segovia used his personal and office computers to order thousands of synthetic opioids, including valeryl fentanyl, that were disguised as chocolates, wedding favors and makeup, as part of a plan to distribute them across the United States. , according to a criminal complaint filed Monday by the office. United States Attorney.
According to the criminal complaint, Homeland Security agents were flown to Segovia through an investigation investigating a network they said was shipping controlled substances made in India.
less than 61 shipments According to the complaint, between October 2015 and January 2023, hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of drugs were shipped to Segovia’s home, originating from countries including Hong Kong, Hungary, India and Singapore.
“The manifest for these shipments declared their contents with a label such as ‘Wedding Party Favors,’ ‘Gift Makeup,’ or ‘Chocolate and Sweets,'” the U.S. Attorney’s Office for Northern California said in a press release.
“But between July 2019 and January 2023, authorities intercepted and opened five of these shipments and found they contained thousands of pills of controlled substances, including the synthetic opioids tramadol and tapentadol.”
fentanyl is very easy to use
“What really gets me about this is a reminder of how accessible it is,” said Santa Clara County Supervisor Cindy Chavez. “And that we, from a law enforcement and a community perspective, need to be more aggressive and more vocal about how we deal with disrupting the chain that we have so far been unable to break.”
Segovia’s allies are perplexed.
“I’m absolutely shocked, shocked, saddened,” said Sean Pritchard, president of the San Jose Police Officers’ Association (POA). “And as the days go by, I’m at the place where I’m angry now.”
Segovia has been described as the “grandmother” of the organization, representing rank-and-file employees in a department with more than 1,000 officers.
Pritchard told local media, “This person is actually known as the grandmother of the POA, and it is not the woman we have known for over a decade and that is why it is so difficult.”
According to the complaint, Segovia could face a maximum sentence of 20 years.
Photo from Segovia’s LinkedIn account