PJ transfers co-ordinator who reported illegal wiretaps and court lies
David Freitas was transferred to the PJ school the day after the disclosure of his complaint to the Public Prosecution Service about illegal environmental surveillance. The order was signed by deputy national director Pedro Fonseca.
Transfer at PJ following denunciation of illegal wiretaps and false testimony
The national leadership of the Judicial Police ordered the transfer of co-ordinator David Freitas to the Institute of Judicial Police and Criminal Sciences (IPJCC), in Loures, the day following the public disclosure of the complaint he submitted to the Public Prosecution Service regarding alleged illegal environmental surveillance and false testimony in court. According to CNN Portugal, which obtained access to dispatch 137/2026, Freitas must report on Monday, the 7th, citing the "superior interests of the Judicial Police and the convenience of service".
The dispatch, signed on 28 August by deputy national director Pedro Fonseca, justifies the transfer in six points. In none of these is any connection mentioned to the complaint Freitas submitted on 27 July to the Prosecutor General, Amadeu Guerra, in which he accused various members of the Judicial Police and the national director Carlos Cabreiro himself of abuse of power and making false statements in court.
The complaint and documents found at UPAT
As revealed by Expresso, the denunciation describes that Carlos Cabreiro, then director of the National Unit for Combating Cybercrime and Technological Crime (UNC3T), allegedly requested in writing the surveillance and wiretapping of "the target" Aníbal Pinto — then lawyer for hacker Rui Pinto — through environmental devices. The operation was allegedly carried out without the knowledge of the Public Prosecution Service, and internal PJ documentation was kept at the Prevention and Technological Support Unit (UPAT). In the trial that resulted in the conviction of Rui Pinto and the lawyer, several members of the Judicial Police allegedly denied the existence of these wiretaps.
In June, after approximately three decades at the PJ — most of it in violent crimes — Freitas was transferred from the National Unit for Combating Terrorism to UPAT. It was there that he found documents concerning the alleged covert operation. His new function consisted of conducting the "inventory and updating of equipment distributed" to teams at that unit, at which point he came across a mission order more than ten years old.
The report and the 2015 operation
Among the documents was also the "External Diligence Report", which described the operation in the field. In it, inspectors from UPAT indicated that they had "placed various devices on the injured party and on the collaborating party" and that "the diligence was positive in the perspective that the equipment used accomplished with complete effectiveness what was intended". The "injured party" was allegedly Nélio Lucas, administrator of Doyen, and the "collaborator" lawyer Pedro Henriques. The two met in 2015 at the Galp fuel station on the Lisbon-Cascais motorway with Aníbal Pinto, who represented the hacker and was asking for 300,000 euros to "collaborate" with the company.
After accessing this documentation, Freitas sent it by email to Amadeu Guerra, who forwarded the data for investigation to the Criminal Investigation and Prosecution Department (DIAP) in Lisbon. Approximately three months after arriving at UPAT, the order to transfer came from national leadership.
Delegation of powers annulled
The transfer dispatch was signed by Pedro Fonseca on the basis of a delegation of powers signed by director Carlos Cabreiro on 29 April. However, Cabreiro annulled this delegation on 25 August — three days before Fonseca signed Freitas's transfer — the annulment being published in the Official Gazette on 1 September.
To justify sending Freitas to the IPJCC, the dispatch states that he is "holder of an academic degree and suitable profile", making him "essential" to fill the lack of trainers at the Judicial Police and contribute to the "training mission (…) of criminal investigation staff and those supporting criminal investigation, in the field of criminal investigation and forensic sciences". The directors of UPAT and the PJ school allegedly gave "full agreement" to the measure, according to the same document.
The female inspector charged and testimony in court
David Freitas is married to inspector Aida Freitas, one of the operatives present at the service station in 2015 and signatory to a report used as evidence in court — a report that made no reference whatsoever to the use of environmental wiretaps. At hearing, Aida Freitas stated that she had "not" heard anything of the conversation described there because she "was far away", adding that she had signed the report "without reading it" and that it was inspector José Amador who drafted the document, he being away from the service station.
Carlos Cabreiro, heard as a witness, criticised the inspector's "lack of professionalism", guaranteeing that he had never seen "a similar case at the Judicial Police". The inspector was subsequently charged in a criminal proceeding for false statements. The trial has already taken place and the verdict is expected this month.
In that same trial, Cabreiro was again called as a witness and allegedly guaranteed that UPAT "did not participate" in the operation — a position that directly contradicts the contents of the internal documents now disclosed by David Freitas.
Source: CNN Portugal