Four people, including two Belgian teens, plead guilty to trafficking giant ants in Kenya
Four men have admitted trafficking giant African harvester ants from a national park in Kenya.
Roughly 5,440 queen ants were seized at Nairobi airport, according to court documents, concealed in modified test tubes and syringes.
The bust has shone a spotlight on the lucrative trade, with the ants' combined value potentially worth up to $1 million in Europe.
The ants were likely destined for formicariums — transparent cases where ant aficionados can watch them building complex colonies.
The species, known as Messor Cephalotes or the Giant African Harvester Ant, are sought-after.
The four smugglers, two Belgian teenagers, a Vietnamese man and a Kenyan national, pleaded guilty on Monday to charges of illegal possession and trafficking of live wildlife.
They appeared in court again on Wednesday for pre-sentencing.
"We are not criminals, we are 18 years old, we are naive, and I just want to go home to start my life," David Lornoy, one of the Belgian smugglers, said at an earlier court appearance.
"
We did not come here to break any laws. By accident and stupidity we did.
"
Over 5,000 ants were concealed in syringes.
(
Reuters: Monicah Mwangi
)
However, Samuel Mutua, a wildlife crime expert at the International Fund for Animal Welfare, said the ant case qualifies as organised crime.
"Irrespective of their age, they were able to get a lot of ants," he told Reuters.
The Kenya Wildlife Service director general Erustus Kanga said the case signalled a shift in wildlife trafficking, from large iconic animals such as elephants to lesser-known species which are nevertheless still critical to the local environment.
"We're seeing organised crime syndicates diversify from traditional ivory poaching to target our entire biodiversity - from medicinal plants, insects to micro-organisms," he said in a statement.
"This case represents far more than insect smuggling."
A magistrate revealed new details of the case on Wednesday, including that the two Belgian teens were arrested at a guesthouse near a national park.
The Giant Harvester Ants are vital to the local Kenyan ecosystem, helping distribute important seeds.
The species are under threat from other issues, including the use of pesticides and habitat destruction.
Reuters
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A former correspondent for Reuters and the BBC, and an informant for the United Kingdom's MI6 foreign spy agency, Forsyth made his name by using his experiences as a reporter in Paris to pen the story of a failed assassination plot on Charles de Gaulle. The Day of the Jackal, in which an English assassin, played in the film by Edward Fox, is hired by French paramilitaries angry at de Gaulle's withdrawal from Algeria, was published in 1971 after Forsyth found himself penniless in London. Written in just 35 days, the book was rejected by a host of publishers who worried that the story was flawed and would not sell as de Gaulle had not been assassinated. De Gaulle died in 1970 from a ruptured aorta while playing Solitaire. But Forsyth's hurricane-paced thriller complete with journalistic-style detail and brutal sub-plots of lust, betrayal and murder was an instant hit. The once poor journalist became a wealthy writer of fiction. 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