[Saul asked the high priest] for letters to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any belonging to the Way, men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem.
Acts 9:2

By what authority could Saul (aka Paul) kidnap people from one Roman province and bring them to another? Surely, the Romans would have taken a very dim view of his activities, regardless of the high priest's approval unless he was very well connected politically. It seems that he operated like a first century Mossad.