Offensive weapons banned on Facebook and Craigslist marketplaces are being covertly sold in towns all across Alabama and neighboring states, adding to the divisive nationwide debate over gun control and making it harder for federal agents to effectively trace stolen weapons.

The ruse, which is in violation of both Facebook and Craigslist’s rules on selling weapons, involves selling an accessory connected to the item, such as a case, for a greatly inflated price. Sellers inform the potential buyer in the advertisement to ask for more information before revealing the real item for sale.

While dozens of examples existed, AL.com inquired about purchasing several so-called cases from buyers in Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and Georgia. In four instances, buyers revealed images of rifles and high-powered bows when asked for more details.

Cases and boxes, which can be found online for less than $100 on most sites, are listed on Facebook and Craigslist ranging from a few hundred dollars up to $2,200. In one Facebook example, a seller in Laurel, Mississippi, advertised an Evike padded hard shell rifle case for $800. Evike’s official website sells the same item for $35.

The seller later revealed to AL.com that he was in fact selling a Ruger American Predator rifle with scope. He showed several pictures. The same seller also listed a Blackhawk Sportster tactical rifle case for $650. It normally retails at $30, according to Amazon.

Facebook and Craigslist have specific rules about what can and cannot be sold, which include almost every type of working gun, but also non-working antique guns, BB guns, airsoft guns and paintball items, among other items. While bows are not listed, many Facebook sellers have complained in online forums about having posts for bows taken down, resulting in dozens of cheap bow cases being sold for hundreds of dollars on the site. Facebook has had rules in place since 2016, according to the company.

Another seller in Griffin, Georgia, showed AL.com pictures of a Savage Model 111 .270 rifle for $350. A seller in Mobile offered a Heckler and Koch pistol case for $540, which was sold as of Wednesday evening. A U.S. military edition Sig Sauer P320 box was being sold in Birmingham for $550.

Similar examples of overpriced cases were found in the towns and cities of Uriah, Theodore, Albertville, Ashville and Jasper through Facebook.

The seller out of Laurel, Mississippi, told AL.com in an interview the Facebook gun sale policy was “unfair.”

“I don’t think the policy is fair but it’s their agenda to do what they please,” said the seller, who wished to remain anonymous for fear of being banned from Facebook. “If you are just a tad bit clever you can get around it. If Facebook shut down tomorrow there are still other avenues where we can buy, sell, and trade and continue enjoying our 2nd amendment rights that we should all cherish.”

However, Facebook is one of the largest marketplaces online, allowing users to easily buy and sell just about any item with relative ease. Typically, as many as 120 million people use the site each month in the United States,. The California-based company primarily uses algorithms and other software tools to police its growing marketplace.

The covert sale of guns on the two enormous online marketplaces, which was first reported by Storyful earlier this month, comes during a divisive period in the fight over gun control.

At the beginning of August 31 people were killed in two mass shootings less than 24 hours apart in Texas and Ohio. Specifically, 22 people were killed in El Paso Aug. 3 and another nine killed the next day in Dayton.

The killings prompted a promise from President Donald Trump that he would look in to the issue of greater gun controls. “We have tremendous support for common sense background checks,” he said Aug. 9 on the White House lawn.

While the sale of the guns does not evidently break any federal laws, they still present law enforcement with significant challenges.

“The main concern is that stolen guns could be changing hands by this method,” said Agent Michael Knight with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF). “The sales also don’t include background checks and guns could be getting into the hands of prohibited people.”

He added: “Once a gun has been used in a crime many people will look to get rid of it.”

Alabama and other southeastern states where guns are easier to buy are often the starting point to what’s known as the Iron Pipeline, a series of highways feeding from southern states into the I-95, which runs from the southern tip of Florida up the East Coast before stopping at the Canadian border. The I-10, which runs through lower Alabama, is one of the main channels that law enforcement say traffickers use to join the I-95 and deliver weapons to states and cities with strict gun laws.

The term also refers to guns being moved from Indiana to neighboring Chicago, which has famously strict laws on gun ownership.

Knight also said that reliable figures on the amount of stolen guns sold online were not available because of the difficulty tracing guns that are recovered in raids or from crime scenes. Knight said that online sales added a new layer for investigators trying to trace the provenance of a stolen gun with no serial number.

While federally licensed firearm dealers are legally required to conduct background checks, the sale of guns from person to person is allowed. Typically, it’s up to the individual states to pass laws requiring background checks on private person to person gun sales. However, only 23 states have specific state or county laws that require an official background check on person to person sales, according to Findlaw.

Alabama is not one those states.

The issue of stolen guns has stirred debate in Mobile this year after the death of Mobile Police officer Sean Tuder Jan. 20. The suspect in the capital murder case, Marco Perez, was later charged with handling stolen weapons and accused of being part of a gun trafficking ring.

Data show that approximately 1,200 guns were stolen from vehicles in Mobile during 2018, and of those, 80% were taken from unlocked vehicles.

“It causes concern for our agency when individuals violate Facebook Marketplace’s policy forbidding the sale of weapons because it’s difficult for us to determine jurisdiction on the internet," said Mobile Police Chief Lawrence Battiste.