The FBI last week opened a new law enforcement attaché office in New Zealand to strengthen and enhance cooperation with a key strategic law enforcement partner in the region.
FBI Director Kash Patel traveled to the southwestern Pacific country to visit the new attaché office—what used to be called a legal attaché, or legat—in New Zealand’s capital city of Wellington. The site is one of about 90 law enforcement attaché offices around the world that help the FBI work within their host countries.
The Wellington office was originally established in 2017 as a suboffice of the Canberra, Australia, attaché office. Director Patel said having a full attaché office in New Zealand will fortify the Bureau’s relationship with a key partner of Five Eyes, a coalition of five countries that also includes the United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia.
New Zealand Police Commissioner Richard Chambers and Director Patel meet at police headquarters in Wellington, New Zealand.
Acting Legal Attaché Jason Alberts and Director Kash Patel share a moment at the July 31, 2025, opening of a new attaché office in Wellington, New Zealand.
“The FBI has had a strong relationship and collaborated closely with our counterparts in New Zealand for years,” said Director Patel said in remarks July 31. “Expanding the Wellington office demonstrates the strength and evolution of our partnership as we continue to work together to address our shared security objectives in the region.”
The attaché office will investigate and work to disrupt a wide range of threats and criminal activities including terrorism, cybercrime and fraud, organized crime and money laundering, child exploitation, and foreign intelligence threats. The Wellington office has territorial responsibility for New Zealand, Antarctica, Samoa, Niue, Cook Islands, and Tonga.
“Our focus here is countering terrorism, countering narcotics, the cyberthreats, and the ransomware attacks that we face in America,” Patel said. He said the strengthened partnership and collaboration will better protect Americans, Australians, and New Zealanders in the region and abroad. The Director also emphasized how the new office can help better address threats posed by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
“The Pacific island countries are critical to bolster the relationship that we have with them through you and the Five Eyes partnerships,” Patel said, “in order to counteract what the CCP wants to do here in this region and has already done.”
Director Patel referred to the INDOPACOM region in his remarks opening the new office in Wellington. The 38 nations comprising the Asia-Pacific region are home to 60% of the world’s population, 3,000 different languages, several of the world’s largest militaries, and five nations allied with the U.S. through mutual defense treaties. Map courtesy of pacom.mil.
“Our focus here is countering terrorism, countering narcotics, the cyberthreats, and the ransomware attacks that we face in America.”
Kash Patel, FBI Director
The Five Eyes coalition grew from an agreement with Great Britain shortly after the end of World War II to share intelligence and coordinate security efforts. The five member countries have a long history of trust and cooperation, and they share a commitment to common values.
“This is such a great Five Eyes moment, but it’s also a great law enforcement moment,” Judith Collins, a member of New Zealand’s parliament who serves as the country’s attorney general, said at the July 31 ribbon-cutting. “What this day marks is not only a commitment to law and order and safety in our region but also the very long-standing and enduring and very reliable relationship that we have with the United States.”
Director Patel chats with Judith Collins, a member of the New Zealand parliament who also serves as the country’s the attorney general and minister of defense.
Director Patel and Winston Peters, a member of the New Zealand parliament and the country’s minister of foreign affairs.
The FBI in 2023 hosted the Emerging Technology and Securing Innovation Security Summit in California. During the summit, Five Eyes intelligence chiefs, government employees, researchers, and private industry partners came together to discuss how innovators can protect their ideas and technology from being stolen or exploited. The intelligence alliance publicly warned about China’s persistent and sophisticated theft of intellectual property and cyber espionage activities.
The FBI and New Zealand Police have previously partnered on a number of investigations, including the 2019 terrorist attacks in Christchurch that killed 51 people and 2021’s Operation Trojan Shield, a worldwide FBI-led takedown targeting organized crime that included 35 arrests in New Zealand.
About the FBI attaché program
The global network of FBI law enforcement attaché offices has been established over decades through mutual agreements with host countries.
The legal attaché program began in 1940, when President Franklin D. Roosevelt tasked the Bureau with handling intelligence in the Western Hemisphere, amid growing concerns about enemy activity in the Americas. In response, the FBI created a Special Intelligence Service that deployed undercover agents to uncover Nazi spy networks in Latin America. That same year, the FBI opened its first overseas office in Mexico City to coordinate with foreign law enforcement, and by the end of 1942, agents were serving as legal attachés—”legats”—in embassies in Bogotá, London, and Ottawa.
After World War II, as the CIA assumed primary responsibility for foreign intelligence, the FBI’s international role shifted toward liaison and criminal investigations. Though the number of legat offices fluctuated over the following decades, the 1990s marked a period of rapid expansion under Director Louis Freeh, driven by the rise of global crime and terrorism. The Bureau opened offices in key countries like Pakistan, Israel, and Saudi Arabia, and launched its first overseas task force in Budapest in 2000 to combat organized crime in partnership with Hungarian police.
Following the 9/11 attacks, the FBI dramatically expanded its overseas presence to address emerging transnational threats, establishing offices in conflict zones and global hubs alike. By 2006, the Bureau had 57 legal attaché offices and 13 sub-offices, and in 2009, the International Operations Division was formally created at FBI Headquarters.
Today, law enforcement attachés operate in more than 90 locations around the world, supporting international investigations, crisis response, and major global events—serving as a vital bridge between the Bureau and its foreign counterparts.
