In 1957, Pacepa was appointed head of the Romanian intelligence station in Frankfurt, West Germany, where he served for two years. In October 1959, Minister of the Interior Alexandru Drăghici appointed him as head of Romania's new industrial espionage department, the S&T (short for "Ştiinţă şi Tehnologie", meaning "science and technology" in Romanian) of Directorate I. He was the head of Romanian industrial espionage, which he managed until he defected in 1978. He was involved with the establishment of Romania's automobile industry, and with the development of its microelectronic, polymer, and antibiotic industries.