18 lines
No EOL
2.5 KiB
Markdown
18 lines
No EOL
2.5 KiB
Markdown
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category: "Country"
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summary: "Cyprus is an island nation in the Eastern Mediterranean, off the coast of Lebanon. Its capital, Nicosia, became a significant location for various intelligence and drug trafficking operations, particularly during the 1980s.[^1]"
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[[Cyprus]] is an island nation in the Eastern Mediterranean, off the coast of [[Lebanon]]. Its capital, Nicosia, became a significant location for various intelligence and drug trafficking operations, particularly during the 1980s.[^1]
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### Role in Drug and Intelligence Operations
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Nicosia, [[Cyprus]], served as a base for the [[DEA|DEA]] and [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] operations, notably through the [[Euramae Trading Company]]. This company, described as a [[DEA|DEA]]/[[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] "front," was established in Nicosia by the Cypriot Police Narcotics Squad. It functioned 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|DEA]] and [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] agents with informants and clients, a message drop for [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] arms dealers supplying [[Iraq]] and the [[Mujahideen]] in [[Afghanistan]], and a waiting room for [[DEA|DEA]] confidential informants and couriers from [[Lebanon]].[^1]
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[[Michael T. Hurley]], the [[DEA|DEA]] Country Attache in Nicosia, had overall responsibility for [[Euramae Trading Company]] and its initiative to sell [[PROMIS]] software to Middle Eastern countries for drug abuse control. [[Michael Riconosciuto]] claimed to have handled communications protocol and financial transactions for operations in [[Lebanon]] from [[Cyprus]], including those involving [[Maurice Ghanem]] and [[George K. Pender]].[^1]
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[[Lester Coleman]], a [[Defense Intelligence Agency|DIA]] covert intelligence officer, worked in the office of [[Euramae Trading Company]] in Nicosia. He claimed that the [[DEA|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]
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### Footnotes
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[^1]: Seymour, Cheri. *The Last Circle: Danny Casolaro’s Investigation into the Octopus and the PROMIS Software Scandal*. First Edition. TrineDay, 2010. |