Members of Abin’s current management would have hindered the PF’s operation

Members of the current management of the Brazilian Investigation Agency (Abin), under the government of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT), allegedly hindered the access of federal police officers who were carrying out searches at the agency’s headquarters on Thursday (25), according to information investigated by the press.

Even before the operation on Abin’s premises became public, the general director, Luiz Fernando Corrêa, called an internal meeting of the agency’s top management, according to the newspaper “Folha de S.Paulo”. At that moment, around 11 am, the order from the Minister of the Federal Supreme Court (STF) Alexandre de Moraes that authorized the action of the Federal Police (PF), was still under secrecy.

For the PF, there would be evidence of “collusion” between the current management of Abin and employees who worked in the last government and are under investigation, which the agency denies. Still on Thursday, three agents who participated in the meeting were called to testify.

At the meeting, Corrêa would have criticized the Abin units that provided support to the investigation by the Comptroller General of the Union (CGU) and the PF into irregularities in the agency and referred to the group as a “bandalha”, as reported by columnist Natália Portinari, from “UOL”, based on statements taken by police officers.

Appointed by Lula to Abin, Corrêa was director of the PF between 2007 and 2011, in the current president’s second term, and National Secretary of Public Security at the Ministry of Justice, between 2003 and 2007, in the president’s first term.

During searches at the agency’s headquarters, members of Corrêa’s team allegedly denied federal police access to the National Intelligence Center, where files with information on all monitoring already carried out are kept. According to columnist Bela Megale, from the newspaper “O Globo”, the agents’ argument was that the decision made by Moraes was “generic”.

The PF would then have asked the STF minister for a new search warrant for Abin. Issued while the operation was unfolding, the document details the scope of the searches, including mentioning the possibility of arrest in the act for anyone who created difficulties in the investigation.

Only then did the police manage to access the virtual folders with data on monitoring targets during the government of Jair Bolsonaro (PL).

In total, 21 search and seizure warrants were executed at addresses in Brasília, Juiz de Fora (MG), São João del Rei (MG) and Rio de Janeiro. The action included the functional apartment and the office of federal deputy Alexandre Ramagem (PL-RJ), who was general director of Abin in the Bolsonaro government.

The operation was triggered by investigations investigating the illegal use by Abin servers of cell phone and tablet geolocation tools to monitor politicians, judges, among other people, without judicial authorization.

In a statement, Abin declared that “for 10 months, the current management has been collaborating with inquiries by the Federal Police and the Federal Supreme Court into possible irregularities committed during the period of use of the geolocation tool, from 2019 to 2021. Abin is the biggest interested party in the rigorous investigation of the facts and will continue to collaborate with the investigations”.