Kenyan agents bust plot to smuggle giant ants for sale to foreign insect lovers

Four smugglers caught trying to transport thousands of live ants out of Kenya for sale at exotic pet markets in Europe and Asia will be sentenced for trafficking wildlife in a case hailed as a milestone by the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS).

The KWS said authorities intercepted live queen ants, including from the sought-after Messor Cephalotes species also known as the Giant African Harvester Ant, concealed in modified test tubes and syringes.

“Investigations revealed the test tubes had been designed to sustain the ants for up to two months and evade airport security detection,” the KWS said, describing this as “premeditated and well-executed”.

While some people see ants as a picnic-ruining nuisance, aficionados keep them in formicariums, transparent cases where they can watch them building complex colonies.

A court document seen by Reuters stated authorities intercepted about 5,000 queens packed in 2,244 containers, with a street value of about 1-million Kenyan shillings (R148,270).

Two Belgians, one Vietnamese and one Kenyan pleaded guilty on Monday to charges of illegal possession and trafficking of live wildlife and appeared again on Tuesday at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport Court.

“We did not come here to break laws. By accident and stupidity we did,” said David Lornoy, one of the Belgian smugglers, when he asked the court to show leniency.

The court adjourned the case until April 23, when it will consider pre-sentencing reports from the KWS, National Museums of Kenya and the probation officer. The smugglers are in custody.

One source in the ant trade, who asked not to be named because it is a small world and they did not wish to speak for others, said suppliers needed a licence from the KWS and a health certificate to export Messor Cephalotes.

The source said the species, native to Kenya, was much in demand and hard to obtain.

The KWS trumpeted the case as a landmark in the fight against biopiracy because it involved the attempted export of Kenya's genetic resources without informed consent or benefit-sharing, in direct violation of the law.

“The unprecedented case signals a shift in trafficking trends, from iconic large mammals to lesser-known yet ecologically critical species,” it said.

The specialist British retailer AntsRUs described the species as “truly amazing to visually observe”.

“Messor Cephalotes are many people's dream species. Queens are around 20mm to 24mm long and have a beautiful red and brown/black colouration,” it said.

AntsRUs lists the price of a live queen from the species as £99.99 (R2,525), though they are out of stock.

Reuters