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Police said in a statement they had also carried out 25 search and seizure warrants in five states as part of the probe being led by the country’s Supreme Court.
Brazilian newspapers O Globo and Folha de S.Paulo reported that Abin officials allegedly bought the spying software FirstMile from Israeli firm Cognyte and used it to invade targets’ phones and geolocate them.
Abin said in a statement it had launched an internal probe into the alleged misuse of the tool, which it had acquired in 2018 and stopped using in 2021. It said it had cooperated with all relevant authorities and that it had suspended all of the implicated Abin officials.
“Abin’s current management and employees reaffirm their commitment to legality and the Democratic Rule of Law,” it said.
Cognyte did not respond to a request for comment.
The alleged illegal surveillance took place under former President Jair Bolsonaro, a far-right former army captain who narrowly last year’s election to leftist President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.
The federal police did not say whom Abin officials had targeted. Local media reported that targets included Bolsonaro’s critics, including journalists.
Police said two Abin officials were facing internal disciplinary actions and allegedly used their knowledge of the spying program as leverage to avoid dismissal.
Among targets of Friday’s search and seizure warrants was Abin’s third-highest-ranking official, Paulo Maurício Fortunato Pinto, according to Folha and O Globo. At his home, police reportedly found $170,000 in cash. He could not immediately be reached for comment.
