The head of the FBI Cash Patel gave New Zealand officials with an illegal defender for his possession under local laws
Wellington, New Zealand (AP) – On a visit to New Zealand, the FBI director Cash Patel gave the country’s gifts in the country and spying from non -operating pistols that were illegal possessing under local arms laws and must be destroyed.
The plastic printed similar version pistols formed part of the phase of Patel for at least five senior security officials in New Zealand in July. Patel, the chief of Trump’s largest official who visited the country so far, was in Witzton to open the first independent office at the FBI in New Zealand.
The pistols are tightly restricted weapons under New Zealand law and requires one additional permit that exceeds the license of the normal gun. Law enforcement agencies did not specify whether the officials who met with Patel retained such permits, but they were unable to keep gifts legally if they did not.
A Pateel spokesman told the AP newspaper on Tuesday that the FBI will not comment.
The New Zealand Border Security Agency confirmed on Wednesday that all travelers to New Zealand are required to announce any rifles or parts of weapons upon entering the country. The agency, customs, will not reveal the statements issued by Patel upon arrival.
Visitors must request a license to have a pistol on New Zealand soil. It was not immediately clear if Patel had requested one.
The pistols were delivered and destroyed
Unbutable weapons are treated as if they were operating in New Zealand if the adjustments can make them process again. “The guns were sentenced to arms organizers to be operational and destroyed.
Chambers did not specify how weapons became non -operational before Patel provided them. This temporary disruption of the shooting mechanism usually means.
Three of the most powerful law enforcement numbers in New Zealand said they had received gifts at the meetings on July 31. Chambers was one of the beneficiaries, and the other two were Andrew Hampton, General Manager of the country’s Human Intelligence Agency, and Andrew Clark, General Manager of the GCSB Technical Intelligence Agency, according to a joint statement of their paths.
Two senior elected officials, Police Minister Mark Mitchell, Haidith Collins, the minister in charge of military and spying agencies, said on Wednesday that Patel had given them pistols as well.
A spying agency spokesman described the gift as a “metal currency show” that included a non -3D weapon as “part of the design”. Chambers said that officials asked for advice on gifts the next day from the organizer that imposes New Zealand arms laws.
When weapons were examined, they were discovered that they may be operating.
“To ensure that the firearms laws are complied with, the police ordered and destroy them,” said Chambers.
James Davidson, the former FBI undersecretary who is now head of the FBI project, a non -profit organization that seeks to protect the office from unjustified partisan influence, criticized the appointment of Patel.
But Davidson said that the gift of the symmetrical copies of the pistols seemed to be a “real gesture” from Pattel and their destruction was “completely frankly, which is an exaggerated reaction by NZSIS, which could have made the symmetry version unable to work.”
New Zealand has strong weapons controls
3D printed weapons are treated like other weapons in New Zealand. The country strengthened its restrictions on weapons in the wake of a 2019 white attack on mosques in the city of Kraysherch, when 51 Muslim worshipers were killed by an Australian man who gathered a semi -berry weapon.
The talented Pattel weapons were not of law enforcement leaders, and almost almost prohibited models were now banned after the Craysherch massacre. But there is a set of other reasons that New Zealands may not be able to legalize certain weapons, including specific permits required for pistols.
New Zealand does not have an emotional culture of weapons ownership, and weapons have been seen more since the mass fire. The ownership of the weapon was devoted to the New Zealand law as a privilege, not really.
The country is not short on weapons. It is common in rural pest control. But the crime of violent weapons is rare and that many residents of urban areas may have never seen a personal firearm.
It is not fashionable even to see police officers carry weapons. The front line officers are usually not armed in a patrol and leave their weapons closed in their cars.
Patel caused discomfort from China’s statements
News of Patel’s visit to ripples in New Zealand caused at the time because the opening of the new FBI office in Witzton was not disclosed by news or public outlets until it actually happened. A statement of the Federal Investigation Office in July said that the move is compatible with New Zealand with the FBI missions in other intelligence exchange countries, which also includes the United States, Australia, Canada and the United Kingdom.
The statement said that the office will provide a local mission to the FBI employees who have worked under the supervision of Canberra, Australia, since 2017.
General records that revealed local news this month revealed that Patel met with more than ten governmental employees and elected officials, including the cabinet ministers, during his visit. It was not immediately clear the number of officials who received guns as gifts.
Battle has already sparked moderate diplomatic discomfort in Windton by referring to the observations made to correspondents that the new FBI was aimed at facing China’s influence in the South Pacific, where New Zealand is located. The comments pushed a polite rejection of the Windton officials, who said that the presence of the FBI was the first to cooperate in the first place to cooperate in the crimes of child exploitation and drug smuggling. Beijing encouraged Patel’s comments.
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Mustan mentioned from New York. The Associated Press Eric Taker from Washington contributed.
