2.7 KiB
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Private Organization | Euramae Trading Company was a company operating throughout the Middle East, described by Michael Riconosciuto as a companion company to First Intercontinental Development Corporation and an National Security Council cutout. | Nicosia, Cyprus |
Euramae Trading Company was a company operating throughout the Middle East, described by Michael Riconosciuto as a companion company to First Intercontinental Development Corporation and an National Security Council cutout. It was also identified as a DEA/Central Intelligence Agency "front" by Lester Coleman, newly established by the Cypriot Police Narcotics Squad in Nicosia, Cyprus.1
Euramae's operations were deeply intertwined with drug trafficking and intelligence activities. It served as a transit point for heroin from the Bekaa Valley in Lebanon, cash, documents, and bootleg computer software moving along the Beirut-Nicosia-U.S. pipeline. It was also intended as a meeting place for DEA and Central Intelligence Agency agents with informants and clients, a message drop for Central Intelligence Agency arms dealers supplying Iraq and the Mujahideen in Afghanistan, and a waiting room for DEA confidential informants and couriers from Lebanon.1
Michael Riconosciuto claimed that Euramae was involved in the drug trade as a fully sanctioned National Security Council-directed operation. He handled communications protocol and financial transactions for these operations. Michael T. Hurley, the DEA Country Attache in Nicosia, Cyprus, had overall responsibility for Euramae Trading Company and its initiative to sell PROMIS software to Middle Eastern countries for drug abuse control.1
Lester Coleman worked in the office of Euramae Trading Company, Ltd. in Nicosia, Cyprus, between April and May 1988. He later expressed concern about poor security in the DEA operation in Cyprus. Coleman also claimed that the DEA, along with Cypriot, German, and British police, ran a "drug sting operation" code-named "Khourah" through Cyprus and airports in Europe, which involved delivering heroin from the Bekaa Valley to the United States. This operation allegedly used Pan Am Flight 103 as a "controlled delivery" flight, which later tragically exploded over Scotland.1
Footnotes
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Seymour, Cheri. The Last Circle: Danny Casolaro’s Investigation into the Octopus and the PROMIS Software Scandal. First Edition. TrineDay, 2010. ↩︎