While countering Beijing’s influence in the Pacific was chief among the reasons given by FBI Director Kash Patel when he opened the agency’s new office in Wellington last week, both he and New Zealand’s security ministers also spoke of rising transnational crime affecting the region.
In a statement, the U.S. Embassy in Wellington described the purpose of the new office as working “to investigate and disrupt a wide range of threats and criminal activities, including terrorism, cybercrime and fraud, organised crime and money laundering, child exploitation, and foreign intelligence threats.”
The latest seizure of drugs and weapons in the region bears out the reality of that threat. Comgend Polynésie Française—the national police force of French Polynesia—has announced that it has seized a “historic” quantity of drugs with a total street value of €331 million (US$382.66 million) from a yacht caught in the Marquesas Islands, about 1,400 kilometres north of Tahiti….
Huge Drug and Weapons Haul in French Polynesia Echoes Kash Patel’s Warnings
