PJ Sweeps PS Câmaras, Juntas and the Largo do Rato HQ on Thursday 28 May — 400 Inspectors and Seven DIAP Lisboa Prosecutors Move on 37 Arguidos, Five Detentions and the Santa Maria Maior Junta of Miguel Coelho on Prevaricação Charges
Roughly 400 PJ inspectors and seven DIAP Lisboa prosecutors moved on PS câmaras, juntas and the Largo do Rato HQ on 28 May — 60 home and 32 non-residential search warrants in Lisbon, Mafra, Oeiras and Coimbra, 37 arguidos and the Santa Maria Maior junta on the charge sheet.
The Polícia Judiciária mounted what is shaping up as one of the largest anti-corruption operations of 2026 on the morning of Thursday 28 May, sending roughly 400 inspectors into câmaras municipais, juntas de freguesia and the Socialist Party's national headquarters at Largo do Rato in Lisbon. Seven prosecutors from the Ministério Público are coordinating the inquiry through the Departamento de Investigação e Ação Penal (DIAP) Regional de Lisboa.
According to initial figures circulated by the PJ and reported by Observador, the operation runs on 60 home search warrants and 32 non-residential warrants spread across Lisbon, Mafra, Oeiras and Coimbra. By Thursday's preliminary tally four detentions had been executed outside flagrant delict, one in flagrant delict for illegal possession of a firearm, and 37 individuals had been formally constituted as arguidos.
What the DIAP is investigating
The suspected crimes named in the warrants are prevaricação (abuse of office) and participação económica em negócio (illicit economic participation in business). Investigators are probing two intertwined practices inside PS-managed local bodies, the inquiry materials indicate:
- Hiring procedures inside câmaras and juntas that allegedly funnelled jobs to PS activists.
- Direct-adjustment (ajuste direto) contracts allegedly awarded to companies linked to socialist figures, bypassing competitive tender thresholds.
The Junta de Freguesia de Santa Maria Maior — the central Lisbon parish that covers Baixa, Castelo and Mouraria — is the most prominent local target. Its former president Miguel Coelho, a long-standing socialist figure, sits among those being investigated. Also reported as constituted arguido is Duarte Moral, an advisor to the PS secretary-general José Luís Carneiro, and a former advisor to ex-prime minister António Costa.
Why the Largo do Rato search matters
Searches at a party's national headquarters are rare and politically incendiary. The PJ entered the PS Largo do Rato building to recover documents tied to the local-authority hiring and contracting practices that the DIAP suspects were coordinated above the parish-and-council level. The PS leadership has so far made no formal comment, but the operation lands at a moment when José Luís Carneiro has been mobilising the party against Rosário Palma Ramalho's twelve-proposition labour reform and the 3 June greve geral. A corruption inquiry reaching into his own advisory team narrows the political ground from which the PS can attack the government.
How this fits the recent corruption pipeline
The investigation extends a string of high-profile inquiries that have moved through the PJ and the Tribunal Central de Instrução Criminal in recent months — including the Operação Picoas case against Patrick Drahi and Armando Pereira whose Swiss seizure orders surfaced on 27 May, the Operação Voo Cego indictment of three suspects in the TAP and Hi Fly unapproved-parts ring announced 28 May, and the PJ's separate Wednesday raids on Águas de Gaia. Thursday's mobilisation of 400 inspectors is on the high end of recent PJ deployments and signals that the DIAP Lisboa expects multiple branches of evidence to ripple outward from the initial Santa Maria Maior file.
What happens next
First interrogations of the detained suspects will determine whether the Ministério Público asks the juiz de instrução criminal for coercion measures stronger than termo de identidade e residência. The 37 arguidos figure is likely to rise as searches in Mafra, Oeiras and Coimbra conclude. The PS national leadership is expected to issue a statement once the perimeter of the inquiry is clearer; until then expect a tense interplay between the party's defence and the prosecutor's office that called the searches.
Sources: Observador, ECO, Jornal de Negócios. Operation announced by the Polícia Judiciária; investigation directed by the DIAP Regional de Lisboa.
