A San Jose fire captain suspected of stealing drugs that were meant to help emergency patients will appear in court on Monday afternoon.
Mark Moalem, 45, is charged with stealing painkillers and and sedatives from a locked box in a fire station, according to the Santa Clara County District Attorney's Office.
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WATCH HEREA 22-year veteran of the department who had previously faced drug charges, Moalem was arrested on April 17. He allegedly tampered with or stole drugs that are kept secured inside fire engines, to be used to treat the ill or injured.
On April 14, firefighters reported that a vial of morphine had been tampered with at Station 4 off Leigh Avenue. In addition, a paramedic alerted officials that morphine from another fire house was given to a patient earlier the same day and appeared to have no effect on the patient's pain.
An audit of all of the city's 34 fire stations found that vials of morphine and midazolam, a benzodiazepine, had been tampered with at 17 stations. Officials said that in some instances, it was suspected the drugs had been removed from the vials and replaced with another substance. The audit also found that a box of narcotics vials was missing from a fire truck.
San Jose police, using a license plate reader system, tracked Moalem's vehicle near the fire station during the time frame the narcotics box was allegedly stolen from Station 4. A driver in the images matched Moalem's description.
Moalem was reportedly seen on April 8, 2025, at Station 29, a fire house he was not assigned to, in between two fire trucks near where a narcotics box is kept. He was off duty at the time.
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A search warrant served at Moalem's home allegedly found a large quantity of needles, six SJFD vial caps for morphine, four SJFD vials of midazolam, four SJFD vial caps for midazolam, and four bags of IV saline solution, three of which appeared to have been used.
Moalem, a resident of Gilroy, is currently on leave, officials said. He was previously arrested in 2013 for possession of a controlled substance and under the influence of an opiate. At the time, he was working for the San Jose Fire Department.
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SIGN UP He was also suspected in 2023, when a bottle of morphine was stolen from a fire station.
Moalem is set to be arraigned at 1:30 p.m. Monday in Department 23 at the Hall of Justice in San Jose. If convicted, he will face time in prison.
