Four people including three foreigners appeared in a Kenyan court on Wednesday accused of attempting to smuggle thousands of live ants from the east African country.
Possession of any wildlife specimen or trophy without a permit is a criminal offence in Kenya, punishable by a minimum fine of roughly $10,000 and at least five years in prison.
Belgians Lornoy David and Seppe Lodewijckx, both 18, were arrested in possession of 5,000 queen ants packed in 2,244 tubes in Nakuru County, around 160 kilometres (100 miles) from the capital Nairobi.
Duh Hung Nguyen of Vietnam and Kenyan Dennis Nganga were arrested in a separate case in Kenya, but all four are being tried together.
Nguyen and Nganga were found with ants stored in 140 syringes packed with cotton wool and two containers.
The insects included the ecologically significant Messor cephalotes species native to the region, and investigators said the storage system would allow them to survive during transport for up to two months.
Police estimate the street price of the insects to be around $7,700.
David and Lodewijckx pleaded guilty last week to possessing the insects but not to trafficking, according to their lawyer Halima Magairo.
“These are just young kids… they’re just exploring and you can’t really blame them for exploring,” Magairo said after the latest hearing.
The Kenyan and Vietnamese nationals also pleaded guilty to possession, and all are set to be sentenced on May 7.
The Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) brought the case against the men, saying it was not only a “wildlife crime but also constitutes bio-piracy”.
The suspects “intended to smuggle the ants to high-value exotic pet markets in Europe and Asia, where demand for rare insect species is rising,” it said in a statement.