San Jose police union executive charged with importing illegal fentanyl

By TOM JOYCE THE CENTER SQUARE CONTRIBUTOR

(The Center Square) - The San Jose Police Officers’ Association

Executive Director faces legal trouble over alleged illegal drug importation.

The Office of the United States Attorney filed a federal criminal complaint charging Joanne Marian Segovia with attempting to import illegal drugs into the United States for distribution.

United States Attorney Ismail J. Ramsey and Homeland Security Investigations Special Agent in Charge Tatum King announced, according to a Department of Justice press release.

The criminal complaint was filed on March 27, 2023. It was unsealed on March 28.

The complaint says that the 64year-old Ms. Segovia used her personal and office computers to order opioids and thousands of other pills to her home. Ms. Segovia intended to distribute these illegal drugs elsewhere in the United States, according to the complaint.

Ms. Segovia was apprehended in a Homeland Security investigation into a drug network that was shipping illegal drugs into the San Francisco Bay Area from outside of America.

She had at least 61 shipments sent to her home from October

2015 to January 2023, the complaint alleges. The shipments came from Hong Kong, Hungary, India, and Singapore, among other countries.

The shipments had been declared as “Wedding Party Favors,” “Gift Makeup,” or “Chocolate and Sweets,” according to the complaint. However, between July 2019 and January 2023, officials opened five of these shipments and found thousands of pills of controlled substances, some of which contained thousands of dollars of illegal drugs.

The complaint also alleges that Ms. Segovia used WhatsAppencrypted communications to

LA, Cook counties post biggest population losses in U.S.

By BRETT ROWLAND THE CENTER SQUARE

(The Center Square) – The number of people who used to live in Los Angeles County and Cook County in Illinois continues to plummet.

Los Angeles County posted the largest population decline of all counties in the United States in 2022, falling by 90,704 and continuing a downward trend. It lost nearly twice that amount (180,394) in 2021, according to the U.S. Census Bureau’s Vintage 2022 estimates released Thursday.

Cook County, home to Chicago, lost 68,314 people from July 2021 to July of last year.

Los Angeles County was still the most populous county in the U.S. That was followed by Cook County in Illinois at 5,109,292, which declined by 68,314 from the prior year. Rounding out the top five were Harris County, Texas (4,780,913); Maricopa County, Arizona (4,551,524); and San Diego County, California (3,276,208).

Eight of the top 10 most populous counties in the U.S. were located in the South and West. The two exceptions were Cook County in Illinois and Kings County in New York.

“Reflecting longstanding regional population shifts, the nation’s most populous counties are increasingly located in the South and West,” the bureau reported. “In 2022, 63 of the country’s 100 most populous counties were located in the South and West, up from 61 in the prior year.”

The 10 counties in the U.S. that gained the most people were located in three states: Texas, Arizona and Florida. Maricopa County in Arizona topped the growth list, adding 56,831 people in 2022. It was followed by Harris County, Texas (added 45,626); Collin County, Texas (44,246); Denton County, Texas (33,424); and Polk County, Florida (32,225).

The biggest losers were Los Angeles County, California (-90,704); Cook County, Illinois (-68,314); Queens County, New York (-50,112); Kings County, New York (-46,970); and Bronx County, New York (41,143).

Deaths outnumbered births in most U.S. counties in 2022. Nearly three-quarters of all U.S. counties had natural decrease in 2022, which means they recorded more deaths than births.

Maine was the only state in the nation where all counties had natural decrease. Deaths outnumbered births in 54 or the 55 counties in West Virginia. And seven of the 10 counties with the highest amount of natural decrease were in Florida. Pinellas County topped the list with -6,468.

Births exceeded deaths in 791 counties (or 25.2% of all counties) in 2022. Five of the top 10 counties where births exceeded deaths, called natural increase, were in Texas. Harris County had the highest in the nation with 30,117.

Fentanyl, MDMA, cocaine, acid, cannabis and psilocybin mushrooms reportedly seized

FENTANYL

Continued from Page A1 seized were reportedly found in areas accessible to children living there.

Law enforcement reported seizing approximately 17,000 M30 fentanyl pills, 22.5 pounds of cannabis flower, 27 grams of MDMA or Ecstasy, 218 grams of psilocybin mushrooms, three grams of cocaine and hundreds of acid tabs.

Mr. Hernandez was arrested on suspicion of child cruelty, unlawful possession of ammunition and possession of narcotics for sales, all felonies.

In his affidavit supporting the original federal criminal complaint, arrest warrant and search warrants against Mr. Hernandez, DEA Special Agent Roger Chaney Jr. said Mr. Hernandez possessed more than 16,000 pills containing fentanyl (including wrappings and/or containers), a variety of other controlled substances and a digital scale in his bedroom and in the backyard of his house when he was arrested. email: nhartsteinnewspress@gmail.com plan how she would send and receive pill shipments.

The search warrants also applied to three iPhones confiscated by detectives, which Agent Chaney said contained evidence of drug sales carried out by Mr. Hernandez. He said the defendant told detectives that all the drugs they found did not belong to him and that he was just holding them for another individual.

Additionally, it alleges that she continued ordering controlled substances even after federal investigators interviewed her about it in February 2023. Federal agents seized a package addressed to Ms. Segovia containing fentanyl in Kentucky on March 13, 2023. The parcel allegedly came from China.

Ms. Segovia has been charged with attempting to unlawfully import valeryl fentanyl. For it, she faces a maximum statutory sentence of 20 years in prison.

The prosecutor for the case is Assistant U.S. Attorney Joseph Tartakovsky, with the assistance of Margoth Turcios.