Federal police officer Gabriel Moraes Ferreira dos Santos was sentenced to 26 years and 7 months in prison for facilitating drug trafficking at Eduardo Gomes International Airport in Manaus, capital of the Amazonas state, and for leaking confidential information from Brazil's Federal Police (PF) to a criminal group. The ruling, handed down by a federal court, sets an initial closed prison regime and strips him of his police post, according to G1 Amazonas.
According to the indictment filed by federal prosecutors (MPF), Santos used his access to restricted areas of the airport to place bags containing drugs in the domestic departure area. He is also accused of improperly accessing internal PF systems to obtain data on ongoing police investigations and passing that information to the criminal group.
The federal court convicted him on charges of drug trafficking, criminal association for trafficking, money laundering, breach of professional confidentiality and improper use of restricted access. In addition to the prison term, he was ordered to pay 2,456 fine-days, a penalty calculated as a multiple of daily income under Brazilian law.
Three other convictions
The scheme, which moved drugs from Amazonas to other Brazilian states, also involved a logistics coordinator and two couriers, identified as Attilio Barbosa de Castro Neto and Pedro Felipe Melo de Souza. Prosecutors say the two entered the airport with empty backpacks, passed through security screening, and then received other backpacks already loaded with drugs. Each was sentenced to 4 years and 9 months in prison. The logistics coordinator, identified as Joel Santos Ramos, received a sentence of 16 years, 9 months and 7 days in a closed regime, plus 2,056 fine-days.
The arrests took place during Operation Gatekeeper, launched by the Federal Police in March 2025, when officers also carried out six search and seizure warrants. The criminal case is being heard by the 2nd Federal Court of the Amazonas Judicial Section, under case number 1004955-21.2025.4.01.3200.
In a ruling published in June 2026, the federal court upheld the pretrial detention of the two couriers. Federal judge Thadeu José Piragibe Afonso said the pair had made dozens of interstate trips consistent with the scheme under investigation, which justified keeping them in custody. At the time, Santos was under alternative precautionary measures ordered by the Federal Regional Court of the 1st Region (TRF-1), while Ramos remained a fugitive with a preventive arrest warrant outstanding. G1 said it was trying to reach the defense attorneys for those convicted in the case.