iStockphoto
Ants are probably pretty low on the list of species that spring to mind when it comes to the animals you’d probably think would be at the center of a smuggling operation with roots in Africa. However, they’re apparently a pretty hot commodity in Kenya when you consider multiple groups of conspirators were recently hit with criminal charges for attempting to transport them out of the country.
Virtually every country on the planet has laws designed to prevent invasive species from infiltrating their borders, and many of them also have regulations restricting the transport of animals that reside within theirs.
That includes the African nations that have waged a lengthy battle with poachers and smugglers attempting to profit from the export of byproducts like elephant tusks, rhino horns, and other similarly prized trophies, but they’re also home to plenty of native wildlife with the potential to fetch a pretty penny in other locales.
According to The Washington Post, that apparently includes certain types of ants that were seized in multiple busts that led to the people who rounded them up appearing in court earlier this week.
The most notable case involved two 19-year-olds from Belgium who were staying in the guest house located around 60 miles northeast of Nairobi where authorities discovered more than 5,000 queen ants stashed in vials packed with cotton to facilitate their transport.
The duo entered a guilty plea despite claiming they were simply collecting the ants “for fun,” but officials disputed that claim while pointing to the manner in which they were stored while asserting they “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 two men appeared in court on Tuesday for a hearing where a Kenyan native and a Vietnamese national were also charged after they were found with 400 ants in an unconnected matter; it appears there were a number of different species across both cases, but the Messor cephalotes—a.k.a. the giant African harvester ant—was amog the haul and positioned as a “highly sought-after” variety that can fetch a high price among collectors.
Authorities valued the Belgian men’s stash at around $7,700 (the second was pegged at $1,500), but as the outlet notes, two different websites that have listed Messor cephalotes queens for sale wanted $131 and $226 for a single one.
Content shared from brobible.com.