Charles Mwangi was arraigned on Monday at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport Court, accused of supplying live ants to foreign traffickers, as Kenyan authorities intensify efforts to curb the illegal export of the country’s wildlife.
According to the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (ODPP) Kenya, police searched Mwangi’s residence and recovered 1,000 unpackaged live garden ants, 113 live garden ants packaged in modified syringes, and 503 empty syringes.
Prosecutors allege that Mwangi supplied ants to Chinese national Zhang Kequn, who was arrested last week at Nairobi’s main airport carrying more than 2,000 live garden ants in his luggage. Mwangi is also linked to a shipment seized in Bangkok on March 10 that originated from the Kenyan port city of Mombasa, with alleged accomplices in several counties across Kenya.
Experts say the case highlights a growing trend of biopiracy shifting from high-profile wildlife like elephant ivory to lesser-known species such as ants. Last year, four men were fined $7,700 each for attempting to traffic thousands of live ants out of Kenya.
Ant enthusiasts pay significant sums to maintain colonies in large transparent containers known as formicariums, which allow a detailed view of the ants’ complex social behaviors and colony structures.
