[moe]

Paramilitary operations imply quite a bit of paperwork. That doesn't just happen at a whim. Especially not on a multi-million dollar compound at the risk of legal backlash.

If NZ wanted an excuse to walk their toys then there's never a shortage of drug dealers and other obvious targets with better publicity.

Why would they go ballistic over bagging an overweight computer-fraudster?

There is no plausible explanation other than somebody demanding special effects.

[pyre]

Who cares if someone is demanding special effects? They had the option to say no, and run the arrest in a normal way. The US making demands/requests was probably a convenient excuse for them, IMO.