Two Belgian teens pleaded guilty to the illegal possession and trade of wildlife in Kenya after authorities accused them of trying to smuggle over 5,000 ants out of the country to sell as exotic pets.
The two men —who The Associated Press reported are both 19 — appeared in court Tuesday after being caught with live queen ants inside test tubes and syringes, in what the Kenya Wildlife Service described as a “landmark case.”
Prosecutors told the court in Nairobi that the two Belgian nationals, Lornoy David and Seppe Lodewijckx, were arrested earlier this month at a guesthouse in the town of Naivasha, to Nairobi’s northeast, Kenya’s Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions said in a statement Monday.
They were found with around 5,000 live queen ants held in 2,244 tubes, which prosecutors said had a street value of 1 million Kenyan shillings (around $7,700).
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Their hearing took place alongside a “separate but related” case, according to prosecutors, in which a Vietnamese man and a Kenyan man also pleaded guilty to the charges.
The men, identified by Kenyan authorities as Duh Hung Nguyen and Dennis Ng’ang’a, were charged with the illegal possession and trade of around 400 live queen ants, estimated to be worth 200,000 Kenyan shillings, or $1,500, according to prosecutors.
The Belgian, Vietnamese, and Kenyan foreign ministries did not immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday. Information about the four men’s legal representation was not immediately available. The prosecutor’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The two Belgians told the magistrate during their hearing that they collected the ants for fun and were unaware their actions were illegal, The Associated Press reported.
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“We did not come here to break any laws. By accident and stupidity we did,” David said Tuesday, as he asked the court to show leniency, according to Reuters.
The Kenya Wildlife Service, however, said that the way the ants were stored suggested a “premeditated” act.
“Investigations revealed that the test tubes had been designed to sustain the ants for up to two months and evade airport security detection, including X-ray scanners,” the agency said.
The cotton wool, it added, was used to “maintain the ants’ survival during transit, indicating a premeditated and well-executed trafficking operation.”
“The suspects entered Kenya on tourist visas and, according to intelligence reports, intended to smuggle the ants to high-value exotic pet markets in Europe and Asia, where the demand for rare insect species is rising,” the agency said.
Messor cephalotes —a “highly sought-after” species — were among the ants recovered, the agency added. The insects, also known as the giant African harvester ant, “are prized by collectors for their unique behaviour, complex colony-building capabilities, and greenhouse pest control,” the agency said.
The agency added that the “unprecedented case signals a shift in trafficking trends” in Kenya. According to the International Fund for Animal Welfare, a nonprofit organization, rhino horn, ivory, and pangolins are among the most trafficked items and animals across Kenya and neighboring Tanzania.
According to Ants HQ and AntsRUs, two British ant sellers, queen ants of the Messor cephalotes species measure up to almost one inch in length. They are mostly found in East Africa and are rarely sold because they are “very hard for retailers to source,” Ants R Us added. While those ants are not for sale on the two websites, they are listed at 99 pounds and 169.99 pounds ($131 and $226), respectively.
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