Plot to smuggle giant ants into Europe busted - 'It's like cocaine'

Four smugglers caught trying to transport thousands of live ants out of Kenya for sale on exotic pet markets in Europe and Asia will be sentenced for trafficking wildlife in a case being hailed as a milestone by the Kenya Wildlife Service.

The Kenyan police who raided a national park guesthouse earlier this month were not aiming to bust elephant tusk or rhino horn poachers, but a more esoteric ring trading a much smaller, more lucrative item by weight - queen ants.

Two Belgian teenagers, along with a Vietnamese man and a Kenyan national, were arrested for wildlife trafficking at Jane Guesthouse in Naivasha and will be sentenced in May after pleading guilty.

Kenyan prosecutors have valued the seizures of queens taken from giant African harvester ant colonies at about $9,300.

Depending on the number and variety of each species found, however, it is calculated the haul would have been worth as much as $1 million if it had reached European shores.

"It's like cocaine," said Dino Martins, director of the Turkana Basin Institute and one of Kenya's leading insect experts. "The price of cocaine in Colombia versus getting a kilogram in the European market is such a big value addition, that's why people do it."

Pricey queen ants

Based on the average cost of giant African harvester ants at six retailers in Britain, each of the roughly 5,440 queens seized at Nairobi airport according to court documents is worth around $233.

Ant aficionados pay large sums to maintain ant colonies in large transparent vessels known as formicariums, which provide insights into their intricate social structures and behaviors.

But queen ants are vital for any colony as they are the only ones capable of laying eggs that grow into worker, soldier and future queen ants, meaning that trafficking can jeopardise colonies critical to Kenya's wildlife ecosystem.

Ant exports are permitted from Kenya with licenses, though the regulations are difficult to navigate, Martins said.

"We are not criminals, we are 18 years old, we are naive, and I just want to go home to start my life," one of the Belgian defendants, David Lornoy, said at last week's trial.

Ecological disaster

The Kenya Wildlife Service said the case signals a landmark shift in biopiracy trends from iconic large mammals to lesser-known species that are no less ecologically critical.

"This case represents far more than insect smuggling," said Erustus Kanga, director general of KWS. "We're seeing organized crime syndicates diversify from traditional ivory poaching to target our entire biodiversity - from medicinal plants, insects to micro-organisms."

For Martins, the furore over the case overlooks the greater threat to insects in East Africa posed by pesticides and habitat destruction that kill millions of ants every day.

Harvester ants keep Kenya's iconic Rift Valley healthy by spreading and mixing grass seeds across the landscape, according to Martins.

"If we were to lose all the elephants in Africa, we would be devastated, but the grassland would continue," he said ."If we were to lose all the harvester ants and termites, the Savannah would collapse."