Bellingham (WA) among sites that will get anti-terror patrol planes

[icymist]

Friday, May 28, 2004 - Page updated at 12:00 A.M.

Bellingham among sites that will get anti-terror patrol planes

By The Associated Press

BUFFALO, N.Y. — Homeland Security will position surveillance airplanes at five new northern border stations, including Bellingham and Plattsburgh, as part of a continued buildup of anti-terrorism resources, a spokesman says.

Other locations for the new Air and Marine Operations branches of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement have not been determined, spokesman Dean Boyd said yesterday.

The aircraft will provide the kind of surveillance along the 4,000-mile border that has traditionally been used on the southern border to thwart drug smuggling.

Agents have noted an increase in air smuggling efforts over the northern border in recent years, particularly in the Pacific Northwest.

"Someone who could fly a plane full of narcotics in could also fly a plane full of terrorists in, could also fly a plane full of explosives in," Boyd said

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