Kenya Wildlife Service
Ants are probably not the first thing to spring to mind when it comes to things smugglers can traffic across international borders in search of a profit. However, authorities in Kenya have staged their second big bust in less than a year after tracking down the alleged ringleader of an operation specializing in the movement of those insects.
Trillions of dollars worth of goods are illegally smuggled around the globe each year. Illicit drugs are responsible for a solid chunk of that total, but criminals in that particular line of work can also turn a tidy profit with the help of buyers in search of luxury items at a discount and those who will pay a premium for exotic offerings they can’t get their hands on where they live.
Africa has historically been a hotbed for poachers and smugglers who’ve benefited from the ivory trade in addition to the movement of animal parts like rhino horns, pangolin scales, and other byproducts harvested in so-called traditional medicine.
The continent is also home to many animals that can fetch a pretty penny if they’re still alive when they arrive in another destination, which includes some ants that have once again made headlines in Kenya.
Authorities in Kenya arrested a man with more than 2,000 ants in his luggage who was believed to be in charge of a bug smuggling operation
Last year, I was introduced to the surprisingly lucrative world of ant smuggling when two teenagers from Belgium were arrested in Kenya in connection with the 5,000 queen ants worth around $7,700 that were found in their luggage as they were trying to leave the country.
That duo was nabbed around the same time two other men (one from Vietnam and one from Kenya) were found in possession of 400 giant African harvester ants (valued at $1,500). They allegedly had no connection to the first group, but there was evidence to suggest something larger was at play.
According to the BBC, they may have been part of an operation that authorities believe was overseen by Zhang Kequn, the 27-year-old Chinese national who was arrested at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in the capital city of Nairobi on Tuesday after being caught with thousands of ants he was trying to take with him on his flight back to his native country.
It’s believed Zhang escaped arrest and fled the country when his aforementioned co-conspirators were nabbed last year, but he was on the radar of the officials who flagged his passport and pulled him aside this week. A search of his baggage revealed “1,948 [Messor cephalotes] garden ants packed in specialised test tubes,” as well as 300 more that were in tubes that had been hidden inside three rolls of toilet paper.
The Kenya Wildlife Service says the smuggling of ants that have become popular with collectors in Europe and Asia poses threats to the country’s biodiversity, and it hinted more arrests could be on the way as they map the network of towns where they’re being source from.