CONTRABAND

contraband. Contraband, a. unlawful, illegal, forbidden by law

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Con″tra‐band (?), n. [[It. contrabando; contra + bando ban, proclamation: cf. F. contrebande. See Ban an edict.]] 1. 1. Illegal or prohibited traffic.
Persons the most bound in duty to prevent contraband, and the most interested in the seizures. Burke. 2. 2. Goods or merchandise the importation or exportation of which is forbidden.
3. 3. A negro slave, during the Civil War, escaped to, or was brought within, the Union lines. Such slave was considered contraband of war.
Contraband of war, that which, according to international law, cannot be supplied to a hostile belligerent except at the risk of seizure and condemnation by the aggrieved belligerent. Wharton.