By Steve Neavling
The FBI has named Mehtab Syed to serve as the special agent in charge of the FBI’s Salt Lake City Field Office.
Syed, who most recently served as special agent in charge of Cyber and Counterintelligence Division in the Los Angeles Field Office, began her career as a special agent in August 2005. She was assigned to the New York Field Office and investigated terrorism and was a member of the crisis negotiation team and the rapid deployment team.
In 2008, MsSyed deployed to Islamabad, Pakistan, where she served as acting assistant legal attaché. She was tasked with conducting extensive coordination between law enforcement, intelligence, and security services of multiple governments. She returned to the New York Field Office until 2012.
Later that year, Syed was assigned to an 18-month temporary duty assignment (TDY) at the Counterterrorism Division at FBI headquarters, where she worked as the program manager for extraterritorial counterterrorism cases in the Pakistan/Afghanistan region.
In April 2015, Syed reported to LEGAT Amman as the assistant legal attaché. Syed returned to the New York Field Office as a supervisor for the New York Joint Terrorism Task Force (NY JTTF) in 2017.
In 2020, she was promoted to acting assistant special agent in charge of the NY JTTF’s Extraterritorial Branch.
In November 2020, Syed began serving as the assistant special agent in charge of the cyber and counterintelligence branch of the Newark Field Office.
In 2022, Syed became section chief of China Operations II Branch of the Counterintelligence Division at FBI headquarters.
In April 2023, Syed served as special agent in charge of Cyber and Counterintelligence Division in the Los Angeles Field Office
Before her career as a special agent, Syed served at the bureau as a contract linguist from 2004 to 2005. She also worked as a financial analyst at the corporate office of Cosi, a restaurant chain with locations throughout the U.S.
Syed received a bachelor’s degree in finance from Adelphi University in 2001.
