In turn, there were an estimated 75,000 illegal miners in the heart of the diamond area, known as the Kono District, smuggling on a vast scale, causing a general breakdown of law and order. The buyers and smugglers at that time were mainly Madingo and Lebanese traders. With the tightening of security between Kono and Freetown in the early 1950s, Lebanese smugglers began moving their goods to Liberia. Antwerp, and then Israeli-based diamond merchants soon noticed the booming diamond trade in Monrovia, and many established offices there. Below is a map which shows the resources being mined and other resources available.
.
Monrovia in 1954, kept order as much of the trade under its control as possible. From this point on corruption would be constantly intertwined with the Sierra Leonean diamond industry. In 1968, Siaka Stevens became prime minister after 7 years of independence. He was the first to officially connect the diamond mines to political power and profit, which encouraged illicit mining to gain political power. He nationalized the diamond mines and De Beers' SLST by creating the National Diamond Mining Co. Through NDMC, Stevens gave himself and his key advisor, Lebanese businessman Jamil Mohammed, control of the diamond mines. Under Stevens' authority, legitimate diamond trading dropped from more than two million carats in 1970 to 595,000 carats in 1980 and 48,000 carats in 1988. However, even though De Beers lost some visual control over the diamond mines, it still retained offshore rights to mine diamonds, and it also retained an office in Freetown until the 1980s. During Stevens" tenure, diamond mining would reach its height. Through the 1970s legitimate diamond exports reached over two million carats a year. Most of this money however went into the hands of Lebanese businessmen, as well as the leaders of the regime. In 1985 Stevens retired, handing power to Joseph Momoh, who continued to follow in Stevens footsteps by dealing with Lebanese businessmen.