{"id":139635,"date":"2025-04-15T20:19:43","date_gmt":"2025-04-15T20:19:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/all-news\/belgian-nationals-plead-guilty-to-smuggling-protected-ants"},"modified":"2025-05-08T05:14:39","modified_gmt":"2025-05-08T05:14:39","slug":"belgian-nationals-plead-guilty-to-smuggling-protected-ants","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/all-news\/belgian-nationals-plead-guilty-to-smuggling-protected-ants","title":{"rendered":"Belgian Nationals Plead Guilty to Smuggling Protected Ants"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600\"><strong>Africa-Press &#8211; Kenya. <\/strong><\/span>Four suspects, including three foreign nationals pleaded guilty to a charge of trafficking of trafficking highly sought-after ants out of Kenya.<\/p>\n<p>The men &#8211; two Belgians, a Vietnamese and a Kenyan were arraigned in court Tuesday.<\/p>\n<p>They were arrested at the international airport in Nairobi for the illegal possession and trafficking of live queen ants to sell as exotic pets.<\/p>\n<p>They will be sentenced on April 23.<\/p>\n<p>Kenya Wildlife Services described the case as a &#8220;landmark&#8221; trial.<\/p>\n<p>The agency said it highlighted the growing threat of biopiracy of native species.<\/p>\n<p>Authorities say the insects were meticulously concealed in specially modified test tubes and syringes packed with cotton wool, allowing them to survive for up to two months.<\/p>\n<p>A single insect can fetch up to $200 on the black market.<\/p>\n<p>The giant African harvester ants are native to Kenya, Tanzania and Ethiopia. In Kenya, the ants are protected under international biodiversity treaties, and their capture and trade are strictly regulated.<\/p>\n<p><strong>For More News And Analysis About <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Kenya<\/span> Follow <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Africa-Press<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Africa-Press &#8211; Kenya. Four suspects, including three foreign nationals pleaded guilty to a charge of trafficking of trafficking highly sought-after ants out of Kenya. The men &#8211; two Belgians, a Vietnamese and a Kenyan were arraigned in court Tuesday. They were arrested at the international airport in Nairobi for the illegal possession and trafficking of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":139634,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,3],"tags":[9128,13435,9172,544],"class_list":["post-139635","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-community","tag-animal-traffic","tag-biodiversity","tag-fauna-and-flora","tag-kenya"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.1 (Yoast SEO v27.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Belgian Nationals Plead Guilty to Smuggling Protected Ants - kenya<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Four suspects, including three foreign nationals pleaded guilty to a charge of trafficking of trafficking highly sought- ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/all-news\/belgian-nationals-plead-guilty-to-smuggling-protected-ants\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Belgian Nationals Plead Guilty to Smuggling Protected Ants\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Four suspects, including three foreign nationals pleaded guilty to a charge of trafficking of trafficking highly sought- ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/all-news\/belgian-nationals-plead-guilty-to-smuggling-protected-ants\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"kenya\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-04-15T20:19:43+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-05-08T05:14:39+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/kenya\/sites\/28\/2025\/04\/sm_1744734629.076728.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1024\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"538\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/all-news\/belgian-nationals-plead-guilty-to-smuggling-protected-ants#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/all-news\/belgian-nationals-plead-guilty-to-smuggling-protected-ants\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Belgian Nationals Plead Guilty to Smuggling Protected Ants\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-04-15T20:19:43+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-05-08T05:14:39+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/all-news\/belgian-nationals-plead-guilty-to-smuggling-protected-ants\"},\"wordCount\":177,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/all-news\/belgian-nationals-plead-guilty-to-smuggling-protected-ants#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/kenya\/sites\/28\/2025\/04\/sm_1744734629.076728.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"ANIMAL TRAFFIC\",\"biodiversity\",\"Fauna and Flora\",\"Kenya\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"community\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/all-news\/belgian-nationals-plead-guilty-to-smuggling-protected-ants#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/all-news\/belgian-nationals-plead-guilty-to-smuggling-protected-ants\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/all-news\/belgian-nationals-plead-guilty-to-smuggling-protected-ants\",\"name\":\"Belgian Nationals Plead Guilty to Smuggling Protected Ants - 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