Airport police arrest man with over 2,000 live ants

A Chinese national detained in Kenya was trying to smuggle insects in his luggage

Authorities in Kenya have arrested a 27‑year‑old Chinese national at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) in the capital Nairobi on Tuesday after a routine security check uncovered over two thousand live garden ants in his luggage.

Prosecutor Allen Mulama told the court that a search recovered 2,238 live ants; 1,948 of them were contained in test tubes and the rest were wrapped in three rolls of soft tissue paper. 

According to filings reviewed by Reuters, immigration officials had flagged a “stop order” on Zhang Kequn’s passport due to his evasion of arrest in Kenya the year before.

The Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) informed the court that it requires additional time to complete its investigation, including analyzing an iPhone and a MacBook that were seized from Zhang.

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Prosecutors reported that Zhang identified three individuals who allegedly supplied him with the ants, though he has not publicly addressed these claims. Authorities also noted that a similar shipment of ants originating from Kenya was intercepted in Bangkok during the same week.

This is not the country’s first ant trafficking case. In 2025, prosecutors fined four men, two Belgian nationals, one Vietnamese, and a Kenyan, $7,700 each for attempting to traffic 5,440 giant African harvester queen ants from Kenya.  

In 2023, three individuals from Kenya attempted to smuggle harvester ants valued at $2,321 to France. Both incidents involved Messor cephalotes, a species indigenous to East Africa that is highly prized in the exotic pet trade for its intricate colony-building abilities and distinctive social behavior.

The KWS stated that the confiscated ants were allegedly destined for exotic pet markets across Europe and Asia. Dealers in the United Kingdom have reportedly valued these smuggled ants at up to $220 each.

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Under Kenyan law, wildlife includes indigenous animals and insects, and exporting them requires permits from the KWS.