A Chinese national accused of being the mastermind behind a Kenya-based anti-trafficking ring has been arrested at Nairobi’s Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) after attempting to smuggle more than 2,000 live queen garden ants out of the country, the BBC reports.
Zhang Kequn was intercepted during a routine security check as he prepared to board a flight to China. What authorities found in his luggage was anything but routine: a carefully concealed consignment of live ants, packed with the kind of precision that suggested this was no amateur operation.
According to state prosecutor Allen Mulama, who addressed the court on Wednesday, the ants had been distributed across two hiding spots within Zhang’s personal luggage. “Within his personal luggage, there was found 1,948 garden ants packed in specialised test tubes,” he told the court, adding that “a further 300 live ants were recovered concealed in three rolls of tissue paper within the luggage.”
Zhang has yet to respond to the accusations. However, investigators told the court that he is linked to an anti-trafficking network that was dismantled in Kenya last year, and that he had apparently evaded arrest at the time by fleeing the country on a different passport.
The ants in question, scientifically known as Messor cephalotes, are giant African harvester ants protected under international biodiversity treaties. The Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) has previously warned of a surging demand for the species in Europe and Asia, where collectors prize them as exotic pets. Their removal from the wild, the KWS has cautioned, poses a real threat to soil health and broader ecosystem stability.
This latest arrest follows a landmark case from last May, in which a Kenyan court sentenced four men, two Belgians, a Vietnamese national, and a Kenyan, to one year in prison or a fine of $7,700 (£5,800) for a similar smuggling attempt. The four had pleaded guilty after their arrest in what the KWS described as “a coordinated, intelligence-led operation.” The Belgians, notably, told the court they had been collecting the ants as a hobby and were unaware it was illegal.
Investigators now believe Zhang was the driving force behind that same network. The court on Wednesday granted prosecutors permission to detain him for five days while detectives conduct further investigations, including a forensic examination of his phone and laptop.
Senior KWS official Duncan Juma told the BBC that the probe is far from over, with more arrests expected as investigators extend their reach into other Kenyan towns where ant harvesting is suspected to be taking place.
For the KWS, an agency more accustomed to protecting lions and elephants, the growing ant-trafficking trade represents an unexpected but increasingly serious frontier in wildlife crime.
Source: Apexnewsgh.com