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A Kenyan court has sentenced four men to one year in prison or pay a fine of $7,700 (\u00a35,800) for trying to smuggle thousands of live ants out of the country.<\/p>\n
The four suspects \u2013 two Belgians, a Vietnamese and a Kenyan \u2013 were arrested last month with live ants suspected to have been destined for collectors in Europe and Asia.<\/p>\n
They had pleaded guilty to the charges, with the Belgians telling the court that they were collecting the highly sought-after ants as a hobby and didn’t think it was illegal.<\/p>\n
But delivering the sentence on Wednesday, the judge said the particular species of ants collected was valuable and they had thousands of them \u2014 not just a few.<\/p>\n
“Already the world has lost a number of species due in part to greed. It is time to stem this tide,” said Magistrate Njeri Thuku, adding: “This court will do what it can to protect all creatures great and small.”<\/p>\n
The contraband included giant African harvester ants, which are valued by some UK dealers at up to \u00a3170 ($220) each.<\/p>\n
Belgian nationals Lornoy David and Seppe Lodewijckx, both 19, Vietnamese national Duh Hung Nguyen and Kenyan Dennis Ng’ang’a, were handed similar terms after the magistrate considered their mitigation arguments.<\/p>\n
The Belgians were found with 5,000 ants while the other two were found with more than 300 ants in their apartments.<\/p>\n
The ants were packed in more than 2,000 test tubes filled with cotton wool to help them survive for months, authorities said.<\/p>\n
The Belgian teens had entered Kenya on a tourist visa and were staying in Naivasha, a town popular with tourists for its animal parks and lakes.<\/p>\n
Nguyen, 23, was described by the court as a “mule or courier” as he was just sent to pick up the ants and the person who sent him paid for his ticket.<\/p>\n
The court said Ng’ang’a, 26, acted as a “broker” due to his knowledge of the ants that are found in his rural home.<\/p>\n
While sentencing Nguyen and Ng’ang’a, Ms Thuku said they were involved in what she described as “illegal wildlife trade and possibly bio-piracy”.<\/p>\n
David, an ant enthusiast with 10 colonies of ants at home in Belgium, belongs to a Facebook group called “Ant Gang”, the court heard.<\/p>\n
The Belgian teen, who first visited Kenya five years ago, said he had bought 2,500 queen ants for $200 when he was arrested looking for more.<\/p>\n
While pleading for leniency, David told the court he did not know his actions, which he regretted, were illegal.<\/p>\n
For his part, Lodewijckx said he had only offered to buy the ants for his entomology interest but his intention was not to traffic them.<\/p>\n
But the magistrate said the crime committed by the Belgian teens was “beyond a hobby”.<\/p>\n
“There was no justification for being found with 5,000 queen ants. None at all,” Ms Thuku said.<\/p>\n