In a series of extraordinary encounters with the diamond dealer last year, senior Zimbabwean officials, including the President's nephew, Innocent Mugabe, offered for sale gems looted by Zimbabwean forces fighting in the Congolese civil war. The allegations by John Marsischky, who runs the American-based diamond firm Flashes of Color, cast a spotlight for the first time on the vast smuggling network of blood diamonds at the highest levels of Mugabe's regime. It portrays a government engaged in plundering a neighbouring country and a shady world of contraband and backhanders involving some of the most valuable gems in the world.***