illegal sales

Ravi Patel, Panna’s mining officer, says authorities have taken measures to curb illegal sales but it's difficult to track them because most of the diamonds mined are relatively small and do not fetch high prices.

The worldwide eel fishing industry has also long been beset by poaching and illegal sales.

Maine authorities have managed to thwart poaching in the state using new controls including a swipe card system meant to deter illegal sales.

They also had been seeking to pressure the Reagan administration to secretly facilitate the illegal sales of weapons to Iran — an embarrassing scheme that became known as the Iran-Contra Affair because the administration had planned to use proceeds from the arms sales to secretly subsidize the right-wing Contra rebels in Nicaragua.

Even when police arrested dealers and fined customers, the illegal sales resumed soon afterward.