Zhang Kequn, a 27-year-old Chinese national, was arrested at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in Kenya on Tuesday after attempting to leave the country with more than 2,200 live garden ants in his luggage, court filings seen by Reuters on Thursday showed.
Immigration officials flagged a “stop order” on Zhang’s passport after he had evaded arrest in Kenya the previous year.
Ant enthusiasts, who maintain colonies in large transparent vessels known as formicariums, often pay substantial sums to observe the insects’ complex social structures and behaviors. Last year, four men were fined $7,700 each for attempting to traffic thousands of ants, a move experts described as a shift in biopiracy from high-value trophies like elephant ivory to lesser-known species.
A search of Zhang’s luggage recovered 2,238 ants, including 1,948 packed in test tubes and the remainder in three rolls of soft tissue paper. Court documents indicate that he had been in Kenya for two weeks and named three accomplices who supplied him with the insects.
The Kenya Wildlife Service told the court it needed additional time to complete investigations, including analyzing an iPhone and a MacBook seized from Zhang.
Authorities noted that a similar consignment of ants had been seized in Bangkok on Tuesday, originating from Kenya, pointing to the existence of a widespread and organised ant-smuggling network.
The case highlights growing concerns over biopiracy targeting Kenya’s biodiversity and the illicit trade of live species.
