Brazil’s former spy chief released following ICE detention in Orlando

Brazil’s former intelligence chief has been from a detention center in Orlando after being detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Local media in Brazil first reported the release of Alexandre Ramagem Rodrigues. A Brazilian police official who isn’t authorized to comment publicly told the Miami Herad that the former spy chief had been released, and his name and mugshot no longer appear on the Orange County Department of Corrections website.

Ramagem, 53, was supposed to be serving a 16-year prison sentence in his home country for plotting a coup to keep former President Jair Bolsonaro in power after losing the elections in 2022. Instead, he had been living with his family in North Miami and later in Orlando.

Bolsonaro’s son, Eduardo, thanked President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio on X “for their sensitivity and attention in addressing the case.” The White House has not commented publicly about Ramagem or his release.

In a mugshot released earlier this week by the Orange County Department of Corrections, Ramagem appears with red, puffy eyes, a scruffy beard and wearing a green sweatshirt. The mugshot indicates he had been detained on an “immigration hold.”

The Herald in February that Brazil’s Department of Asset Recovery and International Legal Cooperation had forwarded an official extradition request for Ramagem to the U.S. Justice Department under the two countries’ extradition treaty.

Brazilian authorities have been trying to negotiate his return for five months, a document reviewed by the Herald shows.

While some of his allies say the former spy chief was detained for a minor traffic violation, Brazil’s Federal Police — where Ramagem served as member for 20 years — said his arrest was the result of international law enforcement cooperation between Brazil and the U.S. in the “fight against organized crime.”

The Herald contacted Ramagem’s legal team for comment but received no response.

His detention came less than a week after Brazil’s president, Luiz Inácio “Lula” da Silva, announced a major cooperation agreement with the U.S. to combat drugs and arms trafficking

“It is through international cooperation, shared responsibility and coordinated action that we will be able to confront crimes that cross borders and protect our population,” Lula wrote on social media.

On Tuesday, the president – who had been targeted for assassination by the coup plotters – speculated to Brazilian media that the former intelligence official would be extradited to serve his sentence in Brazil.

“I think Ramagem is coming back. The right wing is saying he was arrested for a small fine. No. He was already sentenced to 16 years in this country. He was a convicted coup plotter. He has to go back to Brazil to serve his sentence,” Lula said.

Lula has not made a public statement since Ramagem’s release.

Ramagem’s allies, including Bolsonaro’s son and political heir Flávio, claim that the spy chief has already submitted an asylum request in the U.S.

“He has an asylum application pending, is well supported legally, and is expected to be released soon,” Flávio wrote last week on X alongside a photo of himself, his father and the intelligence official, who gained the family’s trust after taking over the elder Bolsonaro’s security detail shortly after he was stabbed in 2018.

Despite his release Ramagem, who reportedly entered the U.S. in September 2025 with a diplomatic passport which was then canceled by Brazil’s Supreme Court in December, could still be sent back to Brazil.

Vitelio Brustolin, a Brazil foreign policy expert and researcher in the Harvard University Department of the History of Science, told the Herald that “cooperation between Brazilian and American authorities remains active, and his release does not alter the fact that he remains under monitoring and subject to decisions that could lead him back to Brazil.”

The researcher cautioned that the intelligence official’s release may slow down any deportation, extradition or asylum process.

“It moves from a scenario of potentially quick resolution to one that is more uncertain, prolonged, and legally disputed,” he said, adding that the probability he is returned to Brazil “remains high, especially through deportation.”

Ramagem has been a fugitive in Brazil since he was convicted in September 2025 for armed criminal organization, attempted coup d’état, and attempted violent abolition of the rule of law.

He silently slipped out of the country before his trial via the border with Guyana and ended up in Miami, where he was spotted by Brazilian media in November entering the upscale Solé Mia development in the north of the city.

After news that he was living in Miami became public, the former spy chief reportedly ended up in Orlando, where he was living in an $899,000 home 25 minutes away from the Disney World complex, according to Brazilian newsoutlet G1.