Robert Booth Nichols

Robert Booth Nichols was born in 1943 or 1944. He appeared repeatedly in the investigative threads pursued by journalist Danny Casolaro and in FBI and DOJ records as an individual straddling the boundaries of U.S. intelligence operations and international organized crime. Despite extensive FBI investigation and wiretap surveillance, Nichols reportedly had no arrest record as of the time of Casolaro's death in 1991.¹

Organizational Affiliations

Nichols served as a Director, Senior Vice President, and Chairman of the Investment Committee of the First Intercontinental Development Corporation (FIDCO), described in Casolaro's research as a NSC cutout used in Lebanon for covert operations, including negotiations around large-scale reconstruction financing and the arranged release of a prisoner. Other FIDCO board members included Michael A. McManus, George K. Pender, Robert Maheu, Clint W. Murchison, Jr., Kenneth A. Roe, Frances T. Fox, William M. Pender, and Glen R. Shockley.¹

Nichols was also a principal in Meridian International Logistics (MIL), a holding company that the Los Angeles FBI was investigating as "a source of funding for the purchasing of narcotics/controlled substances and the allocation and use of the proceeds from its trafficking." MIL was additionally described as an NSC cutout for funneling money to board members. Eugene Giaquinto, then president of the MCA home entertainment division, sat on MIL's board, and FBI wiretaps on MCA recorded communications between Nichols and Giaquinto. Nichols also held the position of Chief Executive Officer of R.B.N. Companies, International, a holding company involved in high technology electronics manufacturing, real estate development, and international finance.¹

Through a Meridian subsidiary, Meridian Arms, Nichols partnered with Michael Riconosciuto and provided technical assistance to Wackenhut Corporation in the proposed development of advanced armaments at the Cabazon Indian Reservation near Indio, California, including work on proposals for FMC Corporation covering advanced military technologies.¹

Intelligence Operations

Nichols was described by Casolaro's sources as a contract operative for the NSC at the time of Casolaro's death in August 1991, providing services across multiple government agencies on a for-hire basis. Documented activities included assisting Ignacio Paz of the Philippine government in removing large sums of money from the Philippines through Swiss bank accounts, and involvement in an NSC-directed narcotics operation in Lebanon conducted through Euramae Trading Company in Nicosia, Cyprus, where heroin flow was maintained to preserve the operational credibility of intelligence sources. Other figures in this network identified by Riconosciuto included Michael T. Hurley (DEA Country Attache), Maurice Ghanem, and George Pender.¹

Organized Crime Connections

The Los Angeles FBI investigated Nichols as a suspected international money launderer for both narcotics proceeds and organized crime. His telex number (652483 RBN ASSOCS LSA) was linked to financial transactions in Lebanon. He was described in DEA and FBI records as associated with illegal narcotics transportation through the Golden Triangle and was named in drug prosecutions as "Mr. Big" within the Medellin Cartel. According to Michael Riconosciuto, Nichols handled gold transfers, money laundering operations, and "virtual dead drops" for organized crime figures including Gilbert Rodriguez and Jose Santacruz Londono of the Cali Drug Cartel. He was linked to La Cosa Nostra, specifically the Gambino Crime Family and Bufalino Crime Family, and to the Yakuza. Nichols was also alleged to be the "godson" of Harold Okimoto, described in intelligence records as a senior Japanese organized crime figure based in Hawaii.¹

Investigations into Nichols' activities, including active FBI wiretap operations, were reportedly shut down by the DOJ on multiple occasions when they approached high-level organized crime and narcotics connections.¹

Relationship with Danny Casolaro

Casolaro spent hundreds of hours in telephone communication with Nichols during the course of his Octopus investigation. According to Riconosciuto, Nichols had warned Casolaro to abandon his investigation, and flew to Martinsburg, West Virginia, to press him in person about the danger. In the period immediately before Casolaro's death on August 10, 1991, Casolaro had confronted Nichols with information about Nichols' connection to Michael Abbell and the Cali Drug Cartel, a lead Riconosciuto had provided. Nichols subsequently wrote a manuscript titled "Danny Casolaro's Octopus" after Casolaro's death, in which Nichols indicated his personal belief that Casolaro had been murdered.¹