Vila Nova de Gaia, Portugal, May 26, 2026 (Lusa) – The Criminal Investigation Police (PJ) made 13 detentions on Tuesday during an operation and searches conducted at the municipal company Águas de Gaia, targeting senior officials and businesspeople in an alleged corruption and money laundering scheme involving €8 million.
The PJ's Northern Directorate conducted the law enforcement operation, dubbed "Águas Turvas" (Turbid Waters), executing approximately 30 search warrants across northern Portugal. The arrested suspects allegedly committed crimes of active and passive corruption, abuse of power, and money laundering, a PJ statement said.
"The investigation, ongoing for about 17 months, focuses on a broad, organised economic-financial crime scheme through combined efforts between private sector businesspeople and employees of the Municipal Company Águas de Gaia (ADGAIA), who held relevant decision-making powers regarding public procurement and execution," it stated.
ADGAIA employees make up seven of the detainees, including three holding leadership, management, and coordination roles with decision-making power, a judicial source told Lusa. The remaining suspects include a former municipal company employee who now operates as a businessperson, and five other entrepreneurs involved in civil construction and materials sales.
The suspects operated an organised and entrenched public procurement system in which compromised employees controlled the entire process from start to finish, benefiting businesspeople, the same source said. The officials allegedly accepted various private kickbacks, ranging from financial payments and travel to lunches and home renovations.
The PJ said that the suspected facts reveal a stable, relationship-based framework established over time to manipulate administrative decision-making, where public procurement was weaponised to obtain illegitimate financial and non-financial advantages.
"There have been repeated and coordinated practices aimed at influencing decisions, shaping procedures, predetermining outcomes and undermining control mechanisms, through the use of informal channels of communication, the exploitation of professional and personal relationships, and the creation of expectations of future benefits," the statement said.
PJ investigators are examining suspicions regarding the weaponisation of the municipal company Águas de Gaia for private purposes. This resulted in the illegitimate appropriation of public materials and human resources, violated officials' professional duties, and caused clear damage to the public purse.
Detainees include businesspeople from various sectors and senior executives from Águas de Gaia, alongside other officials who, since 2024, managed the conclusion and execution of public procurement procedures with the suspect companies, totalling €8 million.
Police seized high-performance vehicles, bank accounts, financial instruments, three firearms, and tens of thousands of euros in cash during Tuesday's operation, along with other evidence.
Lusa questioned the Gaia Municipal Council on Tuesday morning regarding the searches, but has received no response so far.
The municipality later released a video statement on Facebook and Instagram concerning the PJ operations at Águas de Gaia. Mayor Luís Filipe Menezes (PSD/CDS/IL), flanked by his executive members, said they were "happy about this."
"No one is guilty before being properly investigated and judged. However, very strong indicators already exist that Águas de Gaia was a den of illegalities, if not corruption, just as there were also pockets of corruption in other municipal companies (...). We want everything to be investigated," he said, noting that the facts in question predate his mandate, meaning the PS opposition, the party of former mayor Eduardo Vítor Rodrigues, must "assume its responsibilities."
Vítor Rodrigues wrote shortly after on Facebook that the searches "do not involve municipal politicians from any mandate"and that "there was never any report of indicators of what is being commented on."
"Allegedly, they involve the behaviour of technicians who were there before I arrived and who continued to be there after I left. The eventual temptations of public life can only be contained by truth and responsibility. And, very often, politicians pay for what technicians and directors do," he said.
The suspects will appear on Wednesday for their first judicial interrogation at the Porto criminal investigation court, where a judge will determine coercive measures.
The public prosecutor's office previously accused the former Chairperson of the Board of Directors of ADGAIA, Miguel Lemos Rodrigues, of several economic crimes, including corruption, in September 2025. Rodrigues, who was already suspended from his duties, allegedly rigged public procurement rules.
JGS/RYOL // ADB.
Lusa
