Portugal's far-right party Chega is pushing to broaden a parliamentary inquiry into the conduct of Luís Neves during his years as national director of the Polícia Judiciária (PJ), the country's criminal police force, extending scrutiny to a bitcoin wallet seized by investigators that has since gone missing. Neves now serves as Minister of Internal Administration.
The proposed inquiry would cover the period from 2018 to 2026 and examine, among other matters, public works contracts between the PJ and the construction firm ConstruBarcelos, the disappearance of approximately 200 weapons from police custody, the storage of seized chemical products linked to Operação Pacoba, and the PJ's role in Operação Influencer, the case that targeted former prime minister António Costa.
For an EU member state, the loss of a seized bitcoin wallet raises pointed questions about how digital assets are stored, tracked and secured once they pass into police custody. Unlike cash or physical evidence, a bitcoin wallet's contents can be moved irretrievably if private keys are mishandled or improperly logged, a vulnerability that has drawn attention from oversight bodies across Europe as crypto seizures by law enforcement become more routine.
Chega's inquiry document seeks access to a wide trail of internal records, including "requests of clarification made by the oversight authority, Luís Neves's responses, meeting notes and decisions relating to oversight under the PJ's organic law." The party also wants "communications between the PSP, the PJ and the Public Prosecutor's Office about the composition of the joint team, the assignment of personnel and the availability of resources."
The document states the inquiry aims to establish "a chronology of decisions, identify those responsible for each procedure and cross-reference administrative, financial and operational documentation."
A long witness list
Chega has named a lengthy roster of figures it wants to hear, including current PJ national director Carlos Cabreiro, Neves's predecessor Almeida Rodrigues, former deputy national director Pedro do Carmo, and PJ officials João Melo and Veríssimo Milhazes. Álvaro Pires, who has overseen PJ financial and asset management since 2018, also features on the list, alongside former Justice Ministers Francisca Van Dunem and Catarina Sarmento e Castro and the current justice minister, Rita Alarcão Júdice. The party additionally wants to question António Costa and Vítor Escária, who served as his chief of staff when he was prime minister.
The Communist Party, PCP, has put forward a narrower version of the inquiry, proposing just four witnesses: Luís Neves, Luísa Proença — a former deputy national director of the PJ — Carlos Cabreiro and Álvaro Pires.
Among the procurement matters Chega wants examined are 17 contracting processes tied to ConstruBarcelos, which received almost one million euros in EU funds for works on PJ facilities in Guarda. The inquiry was triggered by controversies surrounding works on a property belonging to the current minister, carried out by a company that had also held contracts with the PJ, together with the discovery that a trailer containing chemical products seized in Operação Pacoba had been stored at that company's premises.
