{"id":158949,"date":"2025-07-31T09:19:54","date_gmt":"2025-07-31T09:19:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/fbi-opens-first-office-in-new-zealand-to-counter-china-and-cybercrime-the-guardian\/"},"modified":"2025-07-31T09:19:54","modified_gmt":"2025-07-31T09:19:54","slug":"fbi-opens-first-office-in-new-zealand-to-counter-china-and-cybercrime-the-guardian","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/fbi-opens-first-office-in-new-zealand-to-counter-china-and-cybercrime-the-guardian\/","title":{"rendered":"FBI opens first office in New Zealand \u2018to counter China and cybercrime\u2019 – The Guardian"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kash Patel says the office will strengthen protection of the Five Eyes nations and that the US and New Zealand would work on \u2018important global issues\u2019
The director of the FBI, Kash Patel<\/a>, has opened the bureau\u2019s first ever office in New Zealand, in what he said was an attempt to help counter China\u2019s activities in the Indo-Pacific, crack down on issues including cybercrime, and strengthen protection of the Five Eyes<\/a> nations.
Patel, who opened the office at the US embassy in Wellington on Thursday, called the event an \u201chistoric moment\u201d.
\u201cThe announcement that we are opening up our law enforcement attache office here in Wellington shows the world that the FBI<\/a> is actually prioritising a permanent presence across all Five Eyes countries,\u201d Patel said in a video, supplied by the embassy.
\u201cHere in New Zealand<\/a> we had not had that until this historic moment, so we are truly humbled with the reception we have been given.\u201d
Patel said the US and New Zealand would work together on \u201csome of the most important global issues of our time\u201d.
\u201cCountering the CCP in the Indopacom [the US\u2019s Indo-Pacific Command] area, countering the narcotics trade, working against cyber intrusion and ransomware operations and most importantly protecting our respective citizenry,\u201d he said.
The FBI has stationed staff in Wellington since 2017, as a sub-office of the legal attach\u00e9 office in Australia\u2019s capital Canberra, Australia. The new office will have responsibility for partnerships in New Zealand, Antarctica, Samoa, Niue, Cook Islands, and Tonga.
Patel \u2013 a Donald Trump ally, who has made headlines in recent weeks<\/a> over the Epstein controversy – is the most senior member of the US administration to visit New Zealand since the start of Trump\u2019s second term in office.
During his visit, he met with senior government representatives, including the ministers and heads responsible for the <\/strong>country\u2019s police, foreign affairs and spy agencies.
The minister responsible for New Zealand\u2019s intelligence services, Judith Collins said she and Patel had \u201cexchanged a range of insights\u201d on areas such as trans-national organised crime, counter-terrorism, cybersecurity and espionage.
Police minister Mark Mitchell said Patel\u2019s visit should \u201csend a clear message to criminals\u201d that they \u201ccannot hide behind an international border\u201d.
\u201cNew Zealand police are continually working with their overseas counterparts like the FBI to catch those engaged in illegal, harmful activities such as drug smuggling and online child exploitation, as well disrupting and preventing this offending from happening in the first place,\u201d he said in a statement.<\/p>\n

source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Kash Patel says the office will strengthen protection of the Five Eyes nations and that the US and New Zealand would work on \u2018important global issues\u2019The director of the FBI, Kash Patel, has opened the bureau\u2019s first ever office in New Zealand, in what he said was an attempt to help counter China\u2019s activities in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":158950,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-158949","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-us","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158949","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=158949"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158949\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/158950"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=158949"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=158949"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=158949"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}