Brazilian Federal Police arrested two agents of the Brazilian Intelligence Agency (ABIN) this Friday in a wide-ranging operation. Number three The company’s office was raided and raids were carried out at the headquarters of the Internal Intelligence Service in Brasilia. The reason is the suspicion that ABIN members spied without a court order on the mobile phones of politicians, lawyers, judges and journalists critical of then-citizen Jair Bolsonaro. Instrument used a Software An Israeli product called First Mile differs from the popular Pegasus, which is used in many countries to spy on public enemies, human rights activists or presidents and ministers.
The illegal use of eavesdropping and geolocation was revealed by the newspaper a few months ago Or the globeprompting the spy agency to launch an internal investigation.
It was not revealed who or how many people were spied on, but the aforementioned newspaper said it had been used illegally 30,000 times, including 1,800 times against opponents of the far-right president. It also includes police operations at 25 locations in five states.
He Software Called First Mile, it enables tracking of any cell phone user’s GPS data through the data the device transmits to communication towers. In Brazil, it is sold by the Israeli company Cognit.
ABIN, Brazil’s domestic intelligence agency, reported in 2018 that it bought the wiretapping program while Michel Temer was president and stopped using it in 2021, giving Bolsonaro more than a year left in his term. .
According to the Brazilian press, the Software This was received during the military intervention of the Public Security of Rio de Janeiro with the argument of spying on organized crime. But police have now discovered that a computer tool that allows them to locate and access mobile phones was developed at the behest of Bolsonaro, a retired far-right military officer.
Two detained APIN agents have not been charged with improper use of wiretapping, reports Folha D S. Paul, But use their presence to intimidate the agency and prevent them from being fired as a result of a disciplinary file for another matter.
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