Over the decades, almost half of the GDR spies working in the "Operation area" dealt with the procurement of scientific and technical top products. The SED leadership was primarily about economic survival as a whole. Western know-how was also used for maintaining power inside. Mielke's surveillance empire in particular was equipped with western top technology. For this order, the MfS created the "Commercial Coordination" area in 1966, abbreviated Koko, a foreign-acting network of companies that belonged to more than 150 trading companies, mailbox and other companies until the end of the GDR. Alexander Schalck-Golodkowski was head of the empire.
—RBB