We are constantly working on evaluating and improving our national enforcement training programs. Our mission requires that we must always be prepared for a wide range of enforcement challenges that may occur at any given moment during the course of our daily operations. The range of activities can be from physical confrontation pursuant to arrest, bomb threats, or the seizure of highly volatile explosives. Last December, Customs inspectors in Port Angeles, Washington, seized large quantities of bomb making materials including nitro glycerin and timing devices being smuggled into the United States from Canada by Ahmed Ressam, an individual with ties to an Algerian organization suspected of planning terrorist attacks on millenium celebrations in the United States. One can only speculate as to how many innocent lives would have been lost.
Recent activity indicates the stakes are rising.
Customs field offices have reported 38 bomb threats in this fiscal year. Our officers must always remain vigilant against any person or persons willing to inflict bodily harm in the pursuit of their criminal activity. Our officers face the twofold challenge of protecting themselves while they protect the American public. In addition to our work at the borders and ports of entry, our agents routinely perform thousands of enforcement actions, pursuant to our investigative responsibilities, such as drug controlled deliveries, arrest and search warrants. Throughout all of our enforcement endeavors, acts of violence against our officers and agents have occurred with such increasing regularity that very few situations are still being viewed as routine.