A decision by Justice André Mendonça of Brazil's Supreme Federal Court (STF), made public on Tuesday (September 8, 2026), removed not only the director-general of the Federal Police, Andrei Rodrigues, but also the force's intelligence director, Leandro Almada. According to BBC News Brasil, Almada is nationally known for having served on the team of federal officers created to investigate the March 2018 killing of Rio de Janeiro councilwoman Marielle Franco and her driver, Anderson Gomes, a case that shocked Brazil.

The removals are the latest chapter of a crisis inside the court that began last week, when Mendonça lifted the secrecy on Federal Police reports about alleged message exchanges between Justice Alexandre de Moraes and former banker Daniel Vorcaro. The intelligence documents, cited in a dispatch by Moraes, analyzed among other points decisions taken by Mendonça himself in investigations he oversees and the conduct of the government's chief lawyer, Attorney General of the Union Jorge Messias.

Who is Leandro Almada

Almada has headed the Directorate of Police Intelligence (DIP), the central body of the Federal Police intelligence system, since 2024. He previously ran the force's Rio de Janeiro office between 2023 and 2024, after commanding its offices in the states of Amazonas and Bahia. In Rio, the force carried out operations against organized crime under a Supreme Court ruling known as the ADPF das Favelas, and some of those operations reached former governor Cláudio Castro of the PL party.

Two delegates told BBC News Brasil on condition of anonymity that Almada's work in Rio irritated the state government leadership. In December 2023, GloboNews journalist Andreia Sadi reported that Castro and allies had tried to remove Almada from command of the Federal Police in the state.

What the decision says

In the ruling, Mendonça links the removal to six intelligence reports drafted between August 3 and 31 which, in his assessment, exceeded the legal powers of the Federal Police. He called the production and release of the documents unlawful, said they had been used for "directed monitoring and collection" against him and Messias, and described the conduct as institutional snooping ("arapongagem institucional"), according to a review of the ruling by news outlet g1.

As for Almada, the justice noted that the unit which produced the report cited by Moraes answers to the DIP. "That intelligence unit is subject to the DIP, and it is therefore the legal duty of its head to ensure compliance with the internal rules and legal commands that rule out entirely the possibility of producing and spreading these 'reports'," Mendonça wrote. The decision does not state, however, that Almada personally drafted the documents or ordered their production.

"In a preliminary assessment, there are strong signs not only of grave omission but also of participation in and knowledge of the drafting of these 'reports', with extremely damaging consequences, by the current holders of the highest posts in the Federal Police structure regarding its intelligence activities."

Mendonça ordered the force's internal affairs office to investigate how the documents were produced and suspended this type of report on judges, government lawyers and federal officers. He said the removals aim to stop the two delegates from using "the prerogatives, the access, the systems, the institutional relations and the instruments inherent to the post to interfere in the ongoing investigations". Depending on the outcome of the inquiries, Rodrigues and Almada could face administrative proceedings that may end in their expulsion from the force.

• September 1: Mendonça lifts the seal on messages taken from Vorcaro's phone that mention Moraes.
• September 2: the Novo party asks the STF to consider the precautionary removal of Andrei Rodrigues.
• September 3: Moraes removes the secrecy of the Federal Police intelligence reports and asks STF President Edson Fachin to open an inquiry into Mendonça.
• September 8: Mendonça orders the precautionary removal of Rodrigues and Almada and orders the internal affairs inquiry.

Mendonça then sent the case to the court's Second Chamber, a five-justice panel, which began voting on Tuesday morning in its virtual session on whether to uphold Rodrigues's removal. Two justices voted to keep the measure, forming a majority, but Justice Gilmar Mendes asked to review the case, suspending the judgment, according to Folha de S.Paulo and the BBC. Panel president Luiz Fux canceled the in-person session scheduled for the afternoon, and Justice Dias Toffoli has recused himself from cases tied to the Banco Master scandal. No date is set for the judgment to resume; it remains suspended until Gilmar Mendes finishes his review. In parallel, 11 Federal Police directors placed their posts at the disposal of the substitute director-general in a note of "total support" for Rodrigues, and Fachin met with the justice minister and the attorney general of the Union.