Brazil’s Federal Police launched Operation Underhand on 8 July, executing 15 search-and-seizure warrants in Brasília and five cities in Ceará as part of an investigation into a scheme that allegedly diverted public funds through fraudulent bidding processes and financed 2024 municipal campaigns. The main target is federal deputy Júnior Mano (PSB-CE). Agents spent about six hours in his eighth-floor office in the Chamber of Deputies and also raided his functional apartment in Brasília and homes in Fortaleza, Nova Russas, Eusébio, Canindé and Baixio. The operation was authorised by Supreme Federal Court Justice Gilmar Mendes and supported by the federal comptroller’s office. Investigators say the organisation channelled money from parliamentary amendments and municipal contracts to at least 50 municipalities, with court documents citing the congressman’s “central role” in vote buying and illicit financing. The Court ordered the blocking of R$54.6 million in accounts linked to individuals and companies under scrutiny. The probe, opened after a 2024 complaint from a former mayor of Canindé, looks into suspected criminal association, illicit campaign funding, money laundering and falsified documents. The case has been before the Supreme Court since February. Júnior Mano—expelled from the PL in 2024 and the second-most-voted federal deputy in Ceará in 2022—denies wrongdoing and says he trusts the work of the judiciary and police.