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Victoria focus of 1999 terrorist plot involving al-Qaeda-trained Ahmed Ressam

Victoria was also the a focal point for a major terrorism-related story that began in December 1999, when al-Qaeda-trained Ahmed Ressam was detained after an alert U.S. customs agent became suspicious of his nervous manner.
Jeff Bell
Victoria was also the a focal point for a major terrorism-related story that began in December 1999, when al-Qaeda-trained Ahmed Ressam was detained after an alert U.S. customs agent became suspicious of his nervous manner.

Ressam was stopped as he drove off the MV Coho ferry following a Victoria-to-Port Angeles sailing, and was found to have a trunk filled with explosives. Investigators determined that Ressam — who was travelling with a real Canadian passport under the assumed name Benny Noris — was intent on bombing Los Angeles International Airport.

Court records said the explosives found could have produced a blast “40 times greater than that of a devastating car bomb.”

Ressam became known as the Millennium Bomber, since his arrest came just before the start of the new millennium on Jan. 1, 2000. He was initially sentenced to 22 years in prison, a term that was increased to 37 years last fall after a ruling by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.