Office manager for the north California The police union allegedly imported illegal synthetic opioids India and other countries and at least once used her work computer and address, as well as a UPS union account, to ship drugs domestically.

Joan Marian Segovia, executive director of the San Jose Police Association, was charged with attempting to illegally import valerylfentanyl, a synthetic opioid, federal prosecutors said in a statement Wednesday. If found guilty, she faces up to 20 years in prison.

Since 2015, Segovia has had at least 61 shipments of drugs delivered to her home in San Jose from India, Hong Kong, Hungary and Singapore with manifests that listed their contents as “wedding favors,” “gift makeup,” “chocolate and candies” and “dietary supplements,” according to a federal criminal complaint unsealed Tuesday.

It was not immediately known if Segovia, 64, has an attorney who can speak on her behalf.

Tom Saggau, a spokesman for the San Jose police union, said Segovia, a civilian, has worked for the union since 2003, planning funerals for officers killed in the line of duty, serving as a liaison between the department and families. officers. and organizing office parties and fundraisers.

He said federal officials informed the union last Friday that Segovia was under investigation and that no one else in the union was involved or aware of Segovia’s alleged actions.

The discovery shocked her colleagues, Saggau said.

“We had no reason to suspect her,” he said, adding that the union’s board of directors has pledged its full support for the federal investigation.

Federal prosecutors said that in 2019, U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents intercepted a package sent to her home address containing $5,000 worth of Tramadol, a synthetic opioid, and sent her a letter saying they were seizing tablets. The following year, CBP again intercepted the $700 shipment of tramadol and sent it a seizure letter, court records showed.

But federal officials didn’t begin investigating Segovia until last year, when investigators found her name and home address on the cell phone of a suspected drug trafficker who is part of a ring that delivers controlled substances made in India to the San Francisco Bay Area. complaint.

This drug-trafficking ring distributed hundreds of thousands of pills in 48 states, federal prosecutors said.

Segovia used the messaging service WhatsApp and her personal and office computers to order thousands of opioid pills 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 illegal drugs to an address in North Carolina using the police union’s UPS account, prosecutors said. That address is linked to at least five illegal drug seizures, they said.

Investigators found hundreds of photos in a WhatsApp chat on Segovia’s cell phone, including an image of a UPS bill of lading and another computer screen image showing a PayPal payment to an Indian name and Segovia Police Union business cards underneath.

“Based on my training and experience, I know that shippers of controlled substances often send receipts and tracking numbers as proof that they actually shipped the package.

I believe the receipt provided by Segovia was offered by her as proof that she sent the package to an addressee in North Carolina,” David Vargas, special agent in charge of Homeland Security Investigations, wrote in the affidavit.

According to the complaint, Segovia continued to order controlled substances even after being questioned by federal investigators in February.

On March 13, federal agents seized a package in Kentucky containing valerylfentanyl addressed to Segovia. Prosecutors said the package had been brought from China three days earlier and its contents were marked as a “watch”.