In an effort to end the smuggling of insects out of Kenya, Charles Mwangi, a Kenyan national, has been charged by authorities for supplying live ants to foreign traffickers, according to Kenya’s Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions. The office revealed in a post on X that Mwangi was arraigned at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport.
Authorities suspect Mwangi supplied more than 2,000 ants to Zhang Kequn, a Chinese national, who was caught at the Jomo Kenyatta Airport, attempting to smuggle live ants out of the country.
After a police search at Mwangi’s house, authorities retrieved 113 live packaged garden ants in modified syringes, 1,000 unpackaged live garden ants and 503 empty syringes.
Police believe Mwangi has links in several Kenyan counties and suspect him of playing a part in consignment of ants seized in Bangkok on March 10 that originated from the Kenyan port city of Mombasa.
Four men were fined $7,700 each in 2025 for attempting to smuggle thousands of ants out of Kenya in a case experts said gave a sign of a shift in biopiracy from trophies like elephant ivory to lesser-known species.
Ant aficionados pay large sums to maintain colonies in large transparent vessels known as formicariums, which offer a literal window into the species’ complex social structures and behaviours
By: Andrews Kwesi Yeboah