Brazilian police on Monday raided the addresses of one of the sons of former head of state Jair Bolsonaro as part of an investigation into suspicions of illegal espionage during his presidency, AFP reported.

“New searches were carried out as a result of” an operation that took place on Thursday “to investigate a criminal organization within the Brazilian Intelligence Directorate (Abin),” the Federal Police (PF) said in a press release. release

A PF source told AFP that Carlos Bolsonaro, a member of the Rio de Janeiro city council and the second son of the former far-right president, was targeted in Monday’s raids.

According to court documents, investigators suspect Abin used an Israeli spying program called FirstMile to monitor hundreds of politicians and public figures during Bolsonaro’s 2019-2022 presidency.

In total, on Monday, the PF raided nine addresses in the states of Rio de Janeiro (southeast), Goiás (central west) and Bahia (northeast), as well as in the federal district of Brasilia.

According to Brazilian media, Carlos Bolsonaro’s house in Rio de Janeiro and his office in the municipal assembly were searched.

Footage from the GloboNews channel shows police leaving the house in Angra dos Reis, a seaside town about 150 km from Rio, with Jair Bolsonaro and his son Carlos being filmed outside the door.

News site G1 claims that Abin’s computer was seized on Monday from one of the addresses linked to Carlos Bolsonaro, which Fabio Weingarten, one of his family’s lawyers, denied on X (formerly Twitter).

In its press release, the PF explained that this “new phase” of the operation launched on Thursday is aimed at “the political core to identify the main recipients and beneficiaries of the information illegally generated by Abin through covert actions”.

On Thursday, 21 searches were carried out, including the home of former Abin boss Alexander Ramagem, now a federal deputy from Bolsonaro’s Liberal Party.