STORY: Kenyan authorities arrested and charged a Chinese national with attempting to smuggle 2,200 live ants in his luggage.
Court filings seen by Reuters say 27-year-old Zhang Kequn was arrested at Nairobi's main airport on Tuesday while he was trying to leave the country.
Ant aficionados pay large sums to maintain colonies.
The arrest comes amid a rise in cases of smuggling the insects.
:: APRIL 15, 2025
Last year prosecutors accused suspects of being part of an "ant gang" who tried to move the live insects inside plastic syringes packed with cotton balls.
Four men were fined $7,700 each for trying to traffic thousands of ants.
Experts said the case signaled a shift in bio-piracy from trophies like elephant ivory to lesser-known species.
Investigators said a search of Zhang's luggage recovered 2,238 ants, including 1,948 packed in test tubes and the rest in three rolls of "soft tissue papers."
Kenya's wildlife service said a similar consignment of ants had been seized in Bangkok on Tuesday that originated from Kenya, indicating the existence of a widespread and organized ant-smuggling network.
