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Last week, four individuals pleaded guilty after authorities caught them with 5,000 queen ants. The group, which includes three foreigners, appeared in a Kenyan court on Wednesday, charged with attempting to smuggle thousands of live ants out of the country.
In Kenya, possessing any form of wildlife without a permit is a criminal act, punishable by a fine of about USD 10,000 and a minimum five-year prison sentence. Two 18-year-old Belgian nationals, Lornoy David and Seppe Lodewijckx, were found with the queen ants stored in 2,244 tubes in Nakuru County, roughly 160 km (100 miles) northwest of Nairobi. In a separate incident, Vietnamese citizen Duh Hung Nguyen and Kenyan national Dennis Nganga were also arrested. Despite being caught in different cases, all four are facing trial together.
According to a charge sheet viewed by AFP, Nguyen and Nganga had ants kept in 140 cotton-filled syringes and two containers. Some of the insects were identified as Messor cephalotes, a regionally native and ecologically vital species. Investigators noted that the method of storage was designed to keep the ants alive for up to two months during transit.
Police estimate the insects could sell for approximately USD 7,700 on the black market. While David and Lodewijckx admitted to possessing the ants, their lawyer Halima Magairo said they denied trafficking charges. “They’re just kids who were curious — you can’t fault them for exploring,”.
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Nguyen and Nganga also confessed to possession, and all four are scheduled to be sentenced on May 7. The Kenya Wildlife Service, which initiated the case, described it not only as a wildlife crime but also as an act of biopiracy. It said the suspects aimed to export the ants to lucrative exotic pet markets in Europe and Asia, where there is increasing demand for rare insect species.
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