Customs Agent Lauded For Part In Foiling Alleged Bombing Plot

Thu., March 9, 2000

From Staff

Customs Service head Raymond Kelly delivered a medal to an agent who helped foil an alleged bombing plot and called again for increased border staffing at the United States’ northern and southern borders and all ports of entry.

“We need help with additional people, additional technology, better intelligence, better information as to what’s coming across our borders, ” Kelly said. “I think we need additional resources in all different areas.”

Kelly made a brief Tuesday visit to the Olympic Peninsula to present an exceptional service medal to Customs inspector Mike Chapman, one of four agents who seized military-grade explosives and a nitroglycerin equivalent from the trunk of a car crossing into Washington state aboard a ferry from Victoria, British Columbia on Dec. 14.

The other agents received their service medals in Washington, D.C., in December.

The car’s driver, Ahmed Ressam, 32, awaits trial on nine federal counts, including conspiracy to blow up unspecified U.S. targets. His trial has been moved to Los Angeles because of extensive news coverage in the Puget Sound area.

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