On Wednesday, four individuals faced a Kenyan court for allegedly trying to illegally export thousands of live ants from the East African nation.
In Kenya, possessing any wildlife specimen or trophy without proper authorization is considered a crime, with penalties including a minimum fine of approximately $10,000 and a jail term of at least five years.
Belgian nationals Lornoy David and Seppe Lodewijckx, both aged 18, were apprehended in Nakuru County with 5,000 queen ants contained within 2,244 vials. This location is approximately 160 kilometers (100 miles) away from Kenya’s capital city, Nairobi.
Duong Hong Nguyen from Vietnam and Kenyan Dennis Nganga were detained in an unrelated incident in Kenya; however, all four individuals are facing trial collectively.
Nguyen and Nganga were discovered with ants contained within 140 syringes filled with cotton wool along with two additional containers, as per the charges detailed in the document reviewed.
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The insects comprised the ecologically important Messor cephalotes species indigenous to the area, and experts mentioned that the storage system could enable their survival throughout transportation for as long as two months.
The police approximate the market value of these insects at approximately $7,700.
Last week, David and Lodewijckx admitted to having the insects but did not confess to trafficking them, as stated by their attorney Halima Magairo.
“These are merely children… they’re just experimenting, so you can’t really hold them accountable for that exploration,” Magairo stated.
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after the latest hearing.
The Kenyan and Vietnamese individuals likewise admitted to possessing the items, and they are scheduled for sentencing on May 7.
The Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) filed charges against the men, stating that this act was not just a “wildlife crime but also amounts to biopiracy.”
They planned to transport the ants to lucrative exotic pet markets in Europe and Asia, where there is an increasing demand for rare insect species, according to their statement.
