FBI Director James B. Comey has named Michael McGarrity as the special agent in charge of the Criminal Division for the New York Field Office. Mr. McGarrity most recently served as the first director of the Hostage Recovery Fusion Cell, where he led national efforts to secure the safe recovery of U.S. nationals held hostage abroad.

Mr. McGarrity joined the FBI in 1996 and began his career in the New York Field Office, where he investigated violent gangs, Colombian drug trafficking organizations, and international money laundering networks. After the terror attacks on September 11, 2011, Mr. McGarrity transferred to the New York Joint Terrorism Task Force, where he investigated international terrorism matters.

Throughout his career, Mr. McGarrity has held leadership positions as the FBI detailee assigned to the CIA’s Counterterrorism Center, as the FBI’s deputy on-scene commander in Afghanistan, as the supervisor of the FBI’s extraterritorial investigation squad in the Washington Field Office, as the director for Counterterrorism on the White House National Security Staff, and as the legal attaché in Switzerland.

Prior to joining the FBI, Mr. McGarrity was an assistant district attorney in the New York County District Attorney’s Office.