Brazil’s Federal Police (PF) used the first week of 2026 to launch a multi-agency sweep at São Paulo/Guarulhos International Airport—Latin America’s busiest long-haul hub. Between 1 and 5 January officers arrested fugitives from three states, seized counterfeit passports, and intercepted a passenger attempting to smuggle cocaine to France.
A 6 January communiqué notes that agents now run suspicious travel documents through multiple biometric and INTERPOL databases. New ultraviolet scanners flag micro-printing inconsistencies, while an automated triage system assigns each traveller a risk score before they reach the primary inspection booth. PF says the technology has doubled fraud detections year-on-year, albeit at the cost of slightly longer queues during peak hours.
![Federal Police Step Up Document Forensics at Guarulhos, Netting Fugitives, Fake Passports and Cocaine]()
For global employers the crackdown raises the bar for document due diligence. Mobility managers must ensure that expatriates and frequent flyers carry passports in pristine condition and that any second nationality used for business travel is fully declared in HR files. Travellers with temporary passports or emergency-issue documents should build extra time into airport schedules.
The PF campaign follows a record December haul of nearly 100 kg of narcotics at the same airport and is part of ‘Operação Janus,’ a nationwide programme that links customs, immigration and narcotics intelligence in real time. Officers say similar technology will roll out to Rio Galeão and Brasília before Carnival.
Airlines operating crew bases at Guarulhos report that departure delays have been minimal so far, but they are advising premium passengers to arrive 30 minutes earlier until routine processing times stabilise.
A 6 January communiqué notes that agents now run suspicious travel documents through multiple biometric and INTERPOL databases. New ultraviolet scanners flag micro-printing inconsistencies, while an automated triage system assigns each traveller a risk score before they reach the primary inspection booth. PF says the technology has doubled fraud detections year-on-year, albeit at the cost of slightly longer queues during peak hours.
For global employers the crackdown raises the bar for document due diligence. Mobility managers must ensure that expatriates and frequent flyers carry passports in pristine condition and that any second nationality used for business travel is fully declared in HR files. Travellers with temporary passports or emergency-issue documents should build extra time into airport schedules.
The PF campaign follows a record December haul of nearly 100 kg of narcotics at the same airport and is part of ‘Operação Janus,’ a nationwide programme that links customs, immigration and narcotics intelligence in real time. Officers say similar technology will roll out to Rio Galeão and Brasília before Carnival.
Airlines operating crew bases at Guarulhos report that departure delays have been minimal so far, but they are advising premium passengers to arrive 30 minutes earlier until routine processing times stabilise.
Source: VisaHQ Global Mobility News
