In 2019, Leandro Demori, then executive editor of The Intercept Brasil, discovered that someone had purchased a cellphone SIM card using his taxpayer identification number. At the time, he didn’t consider it, but there are now strong indications that members of the Brazilian Intelligence Agency, known as Abin for its initials in Portuguese, were involved.
On June 17, Brazil’s Federal Supreme Court unsealed a 1,150-page Federal Police report detailing how the state’s intelligence structure allegedly was used to spread disinformation and illegally monitor politicians, judges, ordinary citizens and journalists during the administration of then-President Jair Bolsonaro.
The Federal Police investigation found a criminal operation within Abin that worked in coordination with Bolsonaro allies to target individuals deemed politically inconvenient to the then-president. The operation, according to the police, used the Israeli surveillance software FirstMile—purchased in 2018 for 5.7 million reais, or about USD $1 million—for illegal monitoring.
According to the Federal Police, from 2019 to 2021, more than 60,000 illegal searches were made through First Mile, which can track the real-time location of a cell phone, monitor its movements and analyze its routines.
The investigation indicates that at least 12 journalists were among the targets, ranging from prominent columnists such as Monica Bergamo and Reinaldo Azevedo, to lower-profile political analysts from small left-wing outlets.
The report does not detail all the information police say Abin accessed or the full scope of the agency’s actions, but it sheds light on how police say Brazil’s top intelligence agency was weaponized to politically benefit Bolsonaro—and the risks journalists faced during his administration.
Demori, known for his critical coverage of the Bolsonaro administration, says he was deeply alarmed to learn he had been monitored. His family was accompanied by private security between 2019 and 2022.
“We had information about a coup plan that included assassinations of public officials,” Demori told LatAm Journalism Review (LJR), referencing the so-called Green and Yellow Dagger Plan, in which Bolsonaro was charged. “If the coup had succeeded, they could have gone after the people they were already tracking.”
In writing, Abin responded to LJR that it would not comment on the Federal Police allegations.
On June 9, 2019, The Intercept Brasil began publishing a series of exposés dubbed “Vaza Jato” (Car Wash Leaks, in English), arguably the biggest journalism scoop in Brazil this century. The reports revealed alleged illegal conduct by former judge and current senator Sergio Moro during the Lava Jato investigation, including coordinating evidence with prosecutors. The investigation was key to overturning the conviction of current President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and restoring his political rights.
Less than a month later, on July 6, 2019, Demori was the subject of forged written conversations posted to Twitter under the name “Pavão Misterioso” (“Mysterious Peacock”), falsely saying he and fellow Intercept journalist Glenn Greenwald had hired Russian hackers to break into the phones of public officials.
Today, there is evidence that professionals within Abin were involved in forging the dossier. The Federal Police found a folder labeled “Pavão” on agency computers, as first reported a year ago by journalists Juliana Dal Piva and Igor Mello on the ICL Notícias website.
The Federal Police investigation shows that agents connected to what became known as the “Parallel Abin” case carried out illegal searches using the First Mile software on June 7, 2019, involving three phone numbers later tied to the fake conversations between Demori and the former lawmakers Wyllys and Miranda.
According to the police investigation, the seized material includes internal Abin documents and files with the monitored numbers, stored under the responsibility of the agency’s intelligence division, then headed by Fabrício Cardoso de Paiva—later appointed to the Ministry of Infrastructure under the Bolsonaro administration. Paiva was replaced by Luiz Gustavo Mota, one of the operation’s managers.
According to the Federal Police investigation, this was not the only time Demori was targeted by those involved in the Parallel Abin case. In June 2024, the journalist was again the subject of disinformation efforts organized by people who had ties to the Parallel Abin, according to the police.
The Federal Police investigation found that businessmen Richards Pozzer and Daniel Ribeiro Lemos, known for spreading disinformation in right-wing groups, discussed creating a new dossier about Demori, who at the time was affiliated with the state-run Empresa Brasil de Comunicação and an associate of the Instituto Conhecimento Liberta.
“I was very surprised and outraged because I thought the structure had been dismantled,” he said. “They were putting together another fake dossier, alleging money laundering at the companies I work with.”
Some of the journalists who were surveilled still do not know why. Reporter Alice Maciel, based in Brasília with Agência Pública, routinely covered Bolsonaro’s administration with a critical lens.
She only found out she was monitored when the police report was released in June and a colleague sent her a photo showing her name.
“I said, ‘You’ve got to be kidding,’” Maciel told LJR. “I never imagined I could be under surveillance.”
The Federal Police’s report contains just one page about Maciel, which includes a conversation between two alleged Abin agents in May 2022. One tells the other to investigate her: “Find out which side the journalist is on. Political leanings,” the agent said. The alleged purpose was to discover if she had “any political connection, who can buy stories.”
As in other cases, the police do not detail what information about Maciel was accessed. This is now one of the main demands from victims of the illegal surveillance: to know what was gathered about them and how. Maciel does not know if she was monitored via First Mile or if public data was used.
“I’d like to know if that conversation continued, if there’s more, before or after, because the police only released a snippet,” she said.
The lack of information means many journalists still do not know whether they were targeted because of their professional activities.
Pedro César Batista, who hosts a book program on Brasília’s TV Comunitária, learned he had been spied on in March 2024, when a journalist from website Metrópoles contacted him for an interview. He learned about the Federal Police report during his interview with LJR.
Batista is also an author of political books and a pro-Palestinian activist. According to the police report, 43 searches involving his name were conducted in First Mile between April 21 and 27, 2020. The report does not explain the reason for the searches.
“I believe it was because of my books, articles and organizing work,” he said.
On June 3 of that year, according to the federal police investigation, he was monitored again for organizing a protest against Bolsonaro. “Pedro has a lot of material. It'll look good,” an agent reportedly said, according to the police.
Last year, accompanied by a lawyer, Batista formally requested the information collected about him from the Office of the Comptroller General (CGU) and the president’s office. With no response, Batista took the matter to federal court, where the case remains unresolved, he said.
Among the most shocking probes of the so-called Parallel Abin case described by the Federal Police is that of Luiza Alves Bandeira, a former Folha de S.Paulo reporter who now works as a disinformation consultant.
According to the police investigation, Bandeira was subjected to covert surveillance after uncovering a disinformation network on Facebook, connecting fake profiles to advisers inside the Bolsonaro administration.
The order to spy on her, according to the police investigation, came from Abin’s then-deputy director Frank Márcio de Oliveira, who activated the agency’s Department of Intelligence Operations (DOINT) to “dig up dirt” on the journalist in an effort to discredit her work.
“We need to dig into a name down to the bone,” said Marcelo Araújo Bormevet, a federal police officer assigned to Abin who played a major role in the production and dissemination of disinformation, according to the police report. “This woman is reporting right-wing profiles.”
The Federal Police’s investigation says the surveillance operation began on July 9, 2020—just ahead of Brazil’s municipal elections—and used the First Mile software to track Bandeira’s data, as well as that of her mother, a history teacher. According to the Federal Police, her mother was subjected to three queries in the system between July 9 and Aug. 20, 2020. The information collected has not been made public.
Orders to “dig up dirt” were among the most common commands uncovered by the Federal Police’s investigation. These orders didn’t target just journalists, but also striking truck drivers, archbishops, international legal experts, Supreme Court justices, and even candidates for soccer club presidencies.
According to the police, the directive concerning columnist Reinaldo Azevedo—a conservative who moved toward the democratic center as Brazil’s far right gained strength—included instructions to “dig, explode, focus or bring the hammer down.”
Azevedo made light of the case.
“Good thing they didn’t blow me up or ‘bring the hammer down.’ As for ‘dig,’ I don’t know—it almost sounds erotic (lol),” he wrote to LJR. “God forbid!!! They’re ideological perverts.”
The columnist questioned the broader purpose of using the First Mile software for mass surveillance. In a field operation, like tracking enemies, the tool’s application is clear, he said. But it is unclear why the system would be used on people whose only offense was criticizing the government.
“Why would they want to know the whereabouts of political opponents or even allies? What for? It’s the work of incompetent fascists,” Azevedo said. “In my case, they must’ve died of boredom. I barely go out.”
The mystery will persist as long as the dossiers compiled by Abin remain secret—and they may never release them, given that they may contain private data on innocent individuals. According to Letícia Kleim, legal coordinator at the Brazilian Association of Investigative Journalism (Abraji), the organization is pushing for more transparency and for victims to be granted access to the information collected about them.
“The report doesn’t answer everything, like how extensive the surveillance was, what data was collected, and who all the targets were,” Kleim told LJR.
The case is now before the Supreme Federal Court, and Kleim said Abraji is advising journalists to file complaints with the Ministry of Justice’s Observatory for Monitoring Violence Against Journalists.
Today,the Parallel Abin case is seen as a symbol of the Bolsonaro administration’s disregard for democratic institutions and rights.
Azevedo warned that the threat remains. At a rally against the Supreme Court on June 29, Bolsonaro expressed his intention to build a parallel government starting in 2027, with control over all state institutions.
“Of all the absurdities, the Parallel Abin case wasn’t even the most serious,” Azevedo said. “That is Jair Bolsonaro’s understanding of power.”
