A Chinese national has been arrested in Kenya\u2019s main airport accused of attempting to smuggle more than 2,000 queen garden ants out of the country.<\/p>\n
Zhang Kequn was intercepted during a security check at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) in the capital Nairobi after authorities discovered a large consignment of live ants in his luggage bound for China.<\/p>\n
He has yet to respond to the accusation but investigators said in court that he was linked to an ant-trafficking network that was broken up in Kenya last year.<\/p>\n
The ants are protected by international bio-diversity treaties and their trade is highly regulated.<\/p>\n
Last year, the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) warned of a growing demand for garden ants \u2013 scientifically known as Messor cephalotes \u2013 in Europe and Asia, where collectors keep them as pets.<\/p>\n
A state prosecutor told the court on Wednesday that Zhang had packed some ants in test tubes, while others were concealed in tissue paper rolls hidden in his luggage.<\/p>\n
\u201cWithin his personal luggage there was found 1,948 garden ants packed in specialised test tubes,\u201d prosecutor Allen Mulama told the court.<\/p>\n
\u201cA further 300 live ants were recovered concealed in three rolls of tissue paper within the luggage,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
The prosecutor asked the court to allow the suspect\u2019s electronic devices \u2013 phone and laptop \u2013 to be forensically examined.<\/p>\n
Duncan Juma, a senior KWS official, told the BBC that more arrests were expected as investigators widen their probe into other Kenyan towns where ant harvesting was suspected to be ongoing.<\/p>\n
Last May, a Kenyan court sentenced four men to one year in prison or a fine of $7,700 (\u00a35,800) for trying to smuggle thousands of live queen ants out of the country, in a first-of-its kind case.<\/p>\n
The four suspects \u2013 two Belgians, a Vietnamese and a Kenyan \u2013 had pleaded guilty to the charges after their arrest in what the KWS described as \u201ca co-ordinated, intelligence-led operation\u201d.<\/p>\n
The Belgians told the court that they were collecting the highly sought-after ants as a hobby and didn\u2019t think it was illegal.<\/p>\n
Investigators now say Zhang was the mastermind behind this trafficking ring but apparently escaped Kenya last year using a different passport.<\/p>\n
On Wednesday, the court allowed prosecutors to detain him for five days to enable detectives to conduct further investigations.<\/p>\n
The KWS, which is more used to protecting larger creatures, such as lions and elephants, described last year\u2019s ruling as a \u201clandmark case\u201d.<\/p>\n
The ants seized last year were giant African harvester ants, which KWS said were ecologically important, noting that their removal from the ecosystem could disrupt soil health and biodiversity.<\/p>\n
It is believed that the intended destinations were the exotic pet markets in Europe and Asia.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A Chinese national has been arrested in Kenya\u2019s main airport accused of attempting to smuggle more than 2,000 queen garden ants out of the country. Zhang Kequn was intercepted during a security check at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) in the capital Nairobi after authorities discovered a large consignment of live ants in his luggage […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-134004","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","entry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134004","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=134004"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134004\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=134004"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=134004"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=134004"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}