Hmmmmmmmm! A young family member asked me why this isn't getting more coverage

[malaise]

https://www.justice.gov/usao-ndca/pr/san-jose-police-union-executive-charged-attempted-illegal-importation-fentanyl

San Jose Police Union Executive Charged With Attempted Illegal Importation Of Fentanyl Analogue

The Office of the United States Attorney has filed a federal criminal complaint charging Joanne Marian Segovia with attempt to illegally import a controlled substance in connection with a scheme to bring synthetic opioids into the country and distribute them throughout the United States, announced United States Attorney Ismail J. Ramsey and Homeland Security Investigations Special Agent in Charge Tatum King. The criminal complaint was filed on March 27, 2023, and unsealed the next day.

According to the complaint, Segovia, 64, of San Jose, is the Executive Director of the San Jose Police Officers’ Association (SJPOA). The complaint alleges that Segovia used her personal and office computers to order thousands of opioid and other pills to her home and agreed to distribute the drugs elsewhere in the United States.

The complaint alleges that Segovia was apprehended as part of an ongoing Homeland Security investigation into a network that was shipping controlled substances into the San Francisco Bay Area from abroad.

The complaint alleges that between October 2015 and January 2023, Segovia had at least 61 shipments mailed to her home, originating from countries including Hong Kong, Hungary, India, and Singapore. The manifests for these shipments declared their contents with labels like “Wedding Party Favors,” “Gift Makeup,” or “Chocolate and Sweets.” 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. Certain parcels were valued at thousands of dollars’ worth of drugs.

[malaise]

1. More

https://lawandcrime.com/crime/text-messages-suggest-top-california-police-union-official-led-double-life-smuggling-fentanyl-into-us-feds/


Text messages suggest top California police union official led double life smuggling fentanyl into US: Feds

[TexasTowelie]

2. The story has been posted here one or two times if my memory serves me correctly.

The charges were filed nearly two months ago so unless some additional information is revealed it probably won't receive much coverage until the trial date approaches.

[malaise]

3. He wondered why ReTHUG politicians were trolling about foreigners bringing in the drugs

When the head of this Police Union was charged. He thought this should have received way more media coverage.

[mjvpi]

12. I would agree with him on a couple of levels.

Obviously, the southern border being the sight of the fentanyl problems being a talking point and not the only point of distribution is one of them. This being the head of the police officers union s a big one for me. I always had this idea that the police officer’s union would be the first place where officers who were bad at their job should b recognized and weeded out or recommended for additional training. Like other professional unions should function. I’m a Pollyanna type when it comes to unions.

[malaise]

18. Who polices the person in charge?

Bangs head

[mjvpi]

43. Obviously, that is the problem.

I see the police union as corrupt. I have a vision of unions as a democratic means of both consolidating workers power and ensuring quality in their workforce.

As in our own democracy, the constituents police the person in charge. That works well sometimes?

[AllaN01Bear]

24. distraction.

[MerryBlooms]

4. Segovia has been doing this for years a d years...

I was surprised to see the punishment was going to be up to 20 years? Sure seems light, considering how long it's been going on, and her position in law enforcement.

[malaise]

5. Uneffin' believable

Bangs head

[barbtries]

8. she should be looking at life,

since there are almost certainly dead bodies associated with the drugs she was shipping.

hopefully by the time they get to a trial they will have entered multiple charges (20 years per shipment eg) and she will be put away for good. assuming she's guilty of course.

the person who wondered why this isn't huge news is right. it should be.

[MerryBlooms]

20. I read she was using UPS for shipments, however, UPS contracts

With USPS, so I would think that is also part of the investigation. Bound to be more serious charges coming. Plus, she's going to have to make a deal and name suppliers and distributors. Her biggest concern at this point, is her, her family, and anyone close to her or representing her, surviving. She and some other folks know way too much. A lot of people will have to be brought into protective custody.

[malaise]

37. Yes indeed

This is big business

[barbtries]

6. jeezus.

that's huge. so the police in San Jose are distributing illegal substances? This could not be a one woman show.

Fentanyl is killing young people at a truly frightening rate. Many of these kids are poisoned with fentanyl while taking a pill they thought was something else entirely, like percocet or xanax. They're not a bunch of addicts, but even addicts who are being poisoned with fentanyl were not looking to die that day.

I can't even imagine why it's not front page news Malaise. Almost as if someone might be trying to quash it? I had no clue this was going on.

[malaise]

7. Yep I'd love to know who else was in the ring

Meanwhile they continue to blame migrants for smuggling these drugs that are murdering kids

Don’t see Mexico here
Hong Kong, Hungary, India, and Singapore

[barbtries]

13. i googled her name

and found a couple links from a while back.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/san-jose-police-union-executive-director-fired-after-opioid-smuggling-arrest-joanne-marian-segovia/

https://nypost.com/2023/04/05/inside-the-secret-life-of-drug-dealing-grandma-joanne-segovia/

i never look at the NY Post and don't know if it's even considered a credible source.

Where's the cable people? NYTimes, Washington Post?

the thing to me is she's not running this singlehandedly. she must be part of a network. I hope they are chasing down every little lead they get.

[malaise]

19. I've been catching up

I agree with my young man - the silence is deafening - 61 shipments?

[Mopar151]

21. If all you can do is point fingers.....

It's A lot easier to point at "The Southern Border", and Mexico,, scary,, foreign, crazy old Mexico.

[C Moon]

10. I just read that she's saying the mastermind was her housekeeper.

https://nypost.com/2023/04/05/inside-the-secret-life-of-drug-dealing-grandma-joanne-segovia/

Segovia denied the allegations and told authorities the mastermind was actually her housekeeper — a “family friend” allegedly suffering from a substance abuse disorder, according to a Homeland Security Investigations report.

[barbtries]

16. yeah i read that too.

i don't think her housekeeper had access to her work computer. i figure she had 8 years to figure out how she might weasel out if ever caught. i don't know. i'd like to know more for sure. This is a matter of life and death because people are dying every day from illicit fentanyl that they didn't even know they were taking.

[C Moon]

30. That's a great point: 8 years.

[malaise]

17. Unfreaking believable

That is all

[C Moon]

29. Yup. I don't like thinking guilty before proven innocent, but she sounds like a terrible person.

[barbaraann]

48. She has a housekeeper???

I've known some rich/wealthy people and the only one I knew that had a housekeeper was a multi-millionaire who lived on Tiburon.

[C Moon]

9. What is wrong with people? 64. Probably near retirement?

[malaise]

11. Not a Wrinkle on that face

That costs big money.
There must be more to this story.
Throw away the keys.

[grantcart]

14. Wouldn't be surprised if there was a gambling addiction fueling it

[C Moon]

31. Interesting.

[malaise]

38. Did you miss her beautiful manicures and her well kept

hair?

[Marcuse]

15. Calves the size of cantaloupes?

[IronLionZion]

22. Back the blue

Policing the police needs to be a thing. There are plenty of opportunities for reforms.

[William Gustafson]

23. Play stupid games.....

Win Stupid prizes.....

[spooky3]

25. Incredible. Your relative is correct. Nt

[2naSalit]

26. Depends on who your friends are.

[DFW]

27. Three things must be increased if this kind of thing is to be tackled, and it won't happen

1. Salaries. Cops don‘t make much. The opportunity to get dirty is often present, and it‘s easy to take advantage of that.

2. Penalties. The phrase „support your local police“ is often followed by the unwritten „no matter what they do.“ Good cops are not encouraged if the dirty ones get off lightly or with no penalty at all.

3. Competent oversight. Internal affairs bureaus need to be free of control freaks who are looking to bust other cops on flimsy evidence or for personal grudge reasons. „I‘m just doing my job“ doesn‘t cut it if it‘s a lie, and it discourages clean cops. Looking the other way, for whatever reason, doesn‘t cut it, either.

Like I said, it won‘t happen. From small towns in Texas to the big coastal cities, I think corruption has just gotten too institutionalized to be eliminated with one big bust or some well-meant-but-useless act of Congress.

[malaise]

32. Yes

And not just in the US

[DFW]

34. Here, it's almost the opposite

There was a huge article in the paper over the weekend about how an immense crime clan from Lebanon established itself here 35 years ago, first in Berlin, but then way beyond. They planned and executed a robbery of priceless (estimated $100 million) jewels from a museum in Dresden. They were registered months before as buying huge exotic construction equipment that can only be used for cutting through 4 foot steel, etc. etc. and though none of them is in the construction business, law enforcement ignored it. When some of the thieves made a very unsophisticated attempt to sell some of the loot, some of them got caught. They made a deal with the German authorities that they'd give back some of the loot if they didn't have to testify against other members of the clan, and then were given wrist-slap sentences (2½ years or less, some suspended or on probation). Theft in Germany, no matter how huge, is, in essence, not considered a criminal offense, but rather a nuisance (cops hate filling out forms), unless firearms are used. If your wallet, your luggage, your money, your possessions in your house or even your ID is stolen, officialdom here doesn't care and doesn't want to know. On the other hand, underpay your taxes by €5, or bring in €450 of merchandise from abroad (€430 is the limit without declaring), and you had better get yourself a really sharp defense attorney.

[malaise]

35. I read an article,about the museum heist

How can they ignore theft?

[DFW]

36. Especially a theft of a priceless, irreplaceable cultural heritage

But, as long as there was no use of firearms, and no one injured, German justice usually couldn't care less. German law would probably give the thief a bigger penalty for trying to export the loot without a license from Culture Ministry than for the actual theft, itself. Since these clans have become hugely powerful, and practically have their own unofficial armies, German cops and judges are scared to take any serious action against them. My wife, a German, herself, says that German society has a tendency toward petty jealousy. They don't like people who are more successful than they are, and thus get a certain "Schadenfreude" when someone gets robbed of something. "You have more money than I do, someone should take it away from you!"

Obviously, being jealous of a museum tends toward the absurd, but it is an extension of the same mentality. There is a German word that we don't have in English: "gönnen." It is hard to translate exactly, but it means to wish something for someone, sort of like "I say he had it coming," or "I say he deserves it." It is usually used in a positive way, but it can be used in a negative way as well. If some poor person wins the lottery, you could say, "ich gönne es ihm (I'm happy for him that he got it)." On the other hand, you can use the exact same phrase about someone who won the lottery, didn't give a cent of it away to anyone, bought themselves a yacht, which promptly sank uninsured, in which case the same phrase means, "I was happy to see it happen to him."

[Kid Berwyn]

28. What a former CIA Director said.

“The Latin American drug cartels have stretched their tentacles much deeper into our lives than most people believe. It’s possible they are calling the shots at all levels of government.” — William Colby

[malaise]

33. He should have just said drug cartels

Killing for profit

[BeckyDem]

39. Huge scandal and the kind GOP leaders love to ignore.

K&R

Should be a life sentence.

[malaise]

40. M$$Greedia as well

[Blue Owl]

42. K&R for visibility

[CousinIT]

44. Most fentanyl is smuggled into the US by American citizens. . .

Last edited Mon May 22, 2023, 02:12 PM - Edit history (1)

https://reason.com/2022/10/17/dont-blame-migrants-and-open-borders-for-fentanyl-entering-the-country/

[malaise]

45. Good Read

Thanks

[Brother Buzz]

46. This story got a lot of coverage in SF Bay Area when it broke

Lots of ink explaining the San Jose Police Officers Association was not a law enforcement agency.

I suspect we won't hear more about it until the trial spools up.

[malaise]

47. Thanks