The Endangered Species Act (ESA) is a U.S. federal law that makes CITES law and strictly prohibits trade of threatened and endangered species within and between States. The ESA states that a person under U.S. jurisdiction may not import or export an endangered species, take any endangered species within U.S. territory or the territorial sea, sell or offer an endangered species for sale in interstate or foreign commerce, engage in trade in violation of CITES, or possess any specimen traded in violation of CITES. The ESA applies to any U.S. territory or U.S. citizen in a foreign territory, which allows for prosecutions of violations occurring entirely overseas. For example, a U.S. citizen trading snow leopard skins in Afghanistan could be prosecuted on return to the U.S. If such a sale was organized by a dealer in the U.S, the dealer could be prosecuted in federal court, even if the buyer, seller and leopard skin never left Afghanistan.