Samples of garden ants concealed in plastic tubes are presented to court as two Belgian nationals, a Vietnamese and a Kenyan national appeared for a hearing in their cases, after they pleaded guilty to illegal possession and trafficking of ants, at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) Law Courts, in Nairobi, Kenya, April 15, 2025. Monicah Mwangi/REUTERS

Two Belgian teenagers were charged Tuesday with wildlife piracy after they were found with thousands of ants packed in test tubes in what Kenyan authorities said was part of a trend in trafficking smaller and lesser known species.

Lornoy David and Seppe Lodewijckx, two 19-year-olds who were arrested on April 5 with 5,000 ants at a guest house, appeared distraught during their appearance before a magistrate in Nairobi and were comforted in the courtroom by relatives. They told the magistrate they were collecting the ants for fun and did not know that it was illegal.

In a separate criminal case, Kenyan Dennis Ng'ang'a and Vietnamese Duh Hung Nguyen also were charged with illegal trafficking in the same courtroom, following their arrest while in possession of 400 ants.

The Kenya Wildlife Service said the four men were involved in trafficking the ants to markets in Europe and Asia, and that the species included messor cephalotes, a distinctive, large, red-colored harvester ant native to East Africa.

The illegal export of the ants "not only undermines Kenya's sovereign rights over its biodiversity but also deprives local communities and research institutions of potential ecological and economic benefits," KWS said in a statement.

Kenya has in the past fought against the trafficking of body parts of larger species of wild animals such as elephants, rhinos and pangolins, among others. But the cases against the four men represent "a shift in trafficking trends — from iconic large mammals to lesser-known yet ecologically critical species," KWS said.

The two Belgians were arrested in Kenya's Nakuru county, which is home to various national parks. The 5,000 ants were found in a guest house where they were staying, packed into 2,244 test tubes that had been filled with cotton wool to enable the ants to survive for months.

The other two men were arrested in Nairobi, where they were found to have 400 ants in their apartments.

Kenyan authorities valued the ants at 1 million shillings ($7,700). The prices for ants can vary greatly according to the species and the market.

Philip Muruthi, a vice president for conservation at the Africa Wildlife Foundation in Nairobi, said ants play the role of enriching soils, enabling germination and providing food for species such as birds.

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"The thing is, when you see a healthy forest, like Ngong forest, you don't think about what is making it healthy. It is the relationships all the way from the bacteria to the ants to the bigger things," he said.

Muruthi warned of the risk of trafficking species and exporting diseases to the agricultural industry of the destination countries.

"Even if there is trade, it should be regulated, and nobody should be taking our resources just like that," he said.

Illegal wildlife trafficking has widely become recognized as the 4th biggest illicit trade on the planet, worth an estimated $25 billion per year, according to INTERPOL. Decades of charity-driven conservation efforts have struggled to curb the trade, which experts say is linked to virtually every other facet of global organized crime, from weapons, narcotics and human trafficking to terrorism.


Relatives of Belgian nationals Lornoy David (center) and Seppe Lodewijckx (right) react after the hearing of their case during which the two pleaded guilty to illegal possession and trafficking of ants, at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) Law Courts, in Nairobi, Kenya, April 15, 2025. Monicah Mwangi/REUTERS

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