SAN JOSE — The bombshell federal drug trafficking charges filed last week against the executive director of the San Jose Police union are prompting critical questions about how the long-time officer manager was able for years to run the alleged opioid smuggling scheme right under the noses of police in America’s tenth largest city.
Joanne Segovia, 64, faces drug-trafficking charges and 20 years in prison for the decade-long opioid and fentanyl distribution network that she reportedly ran through her home and the San Jose Police Officers’ Association office where she has been the executive director since 2003. She was arrested last week as part of an ongoing Homeland Security investigation into the drug ring that shipped illegal and dangerous drugs from abroad through the Bay Area and to the rest of the United States.
“It’s like Breaking Bad, San Jose Edition,” said Raj Jayadev, a police reform activist with Silicon Valley Debug. “To have an international drug circle for nearly a decade, right across the street from police — what is the larger ecosystem that would allow that to occur?”
“The kingpin for these drugs landing in the bodies of young people came from the same body that was doing the arresting,” he added. So “there are some questions that need to be answered that city officials and local enforcement should feel compelled to respond to.”
The union — as well as the San Jose Police Department and city officials — has condemned Segovia’s alleged actions but has said that “no other individual associated with the POA is involved, being investigated, or suspected by the authorities of knowing or participating in any way in this incident.
“Mr. Jayadev’s comments are absurd, hypocritical and are in direct contradiction to the facts made available by the U.S. Attorney,” the union said in a statement Wednesday. “Across the country, employees commit crimes unbeknownst to their employers.”
Former union members told this news organization that Segovia was a key civilian member of their staff who, after more than two decades of work for the union, had a high level of trust among executive officers and board members, all of whom are full-time working police officers.
The former union members said Segovia was the contact point and receiver of any money brought in by union fundraising and carried out most logistical functions, including handling the mail. She also had access to the union’s web-based software that tallied member votes on matters such as contract ratification, the former union members said.
Yet according to the federal charges, for nearly a decade Segovia also used her police union work computer to place orders for synthetic opioids from countries such as India, China and Hungary and to orchestrate drug deliveries across the US. She even used the police union’s building — just across the street from San Jose Police headquarters, the Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Department and various Santa Clara County government agencies — as the return address for packages containing thousands of dollars’ worth of controlled substances.
And she made no secret of who she worked for: In communications with drug suppliers, Segovia made frequent mention of her position with law enforcement, according to court records. Facebook posts also show her inquiring about the status of packages she delivered.
“Because Ms. Segovia is law enforcement-adjacent, due to her official capacity with the POA, we must visit the same scrutiny upon the actions not only of Segovia but also her employer,” said Greg Woods, a senior lecturer in criminal justice at San Jose State University. “If it’s law enforcement officers that we put on the front line to impede such a scheme, then we need to make sure these are untouchable individuals who are ethically promoting their own integrity as well as the integrity of their own profession.”
On Wednesday, Jayadev and other activists gathered outside San Jose City Hall to demand that city leaders begin an investigation into how Segovia was able to commit her alleged crimes while working side by side with police. They demanded an audit of all SJPOA campaign contributions and called for the city of San Jose to refuse to go to the contract bargaining table with the SJPOA until a full investigation is completed.
“They need their feet held to the fire,” Gilroy city councilwoman Rebeca Armendariz told those gathered at City Hall on Wednesday. “They can’t poison our families and get away with it.”
In its statement, the union said it has “cooperated fully with federal authorities in their investigation” and has “initiated its own internal investigation of this matter as required by its policies and law, which means we are not permitted to share those results publicly.”
Sacramento County Deputy Sheriffs’ Association President Nate Seger said there were actions the San Jose union could have taken that may have caught Segovia’s crimes earlier, including detailed yearly financial audits and internal audits that require interviews with each employee.
In his office, Seger said, he can also audit employees’ emails and communications, as well as their computer use and social media, at any time.
“If there are emails coming in from Canada or Mexico or places that we wouldn’t normally have a necessity to communicate with in these ways, there are ways to be notified about those things,” Seger said.
That Segovia was trafficking fentanyl was particularly egregious, Seger said. Nearly 6,000 Californians died from a fentanyl overdose in 2021, including 125 in Santa Clara County. That same year — the most recent for which full data is available — fentanyl was behind an astounding 1 in 5 deaths of California youths between the ages of 15 to 24, according to a recent analysis by this news organization.
In April 2022, a fentanyl overdose claimed the life of a San Jose police officer — and across the country, officers have had run-ins with the drug, resulting in several hospitalizations, including that of a Sunnyvale police officer in 2019.
For years, San Jose Police and other agencies supporting law enforcement have warned about fentanyl, advocating for tougher laws against dealers and warning about the exposure that officers in particular have to the drug.
“If the accusations are true, then it’s a slap in the face, because this is what we’re trying to combat,” Seger said. “We’re combating the use of a drug that one of our own people is trafficking. It’s killing our kids, it’s terrible. You’d think that obviously in an association like ours, we’re held to a higher standard.”
Source: www.mercurynews.com