Ants are at the center of a new crime ring threatening Europe: “ it's like cocaine '' '

Police Who made a descent into a guest house in the national park earlier this month was aimed not to break the poachers of elephant or rhino horn, but a more esoteric ring exchanging a much smaller and more lucrative object in weight.

It was a ant smuggling ring.

Two Belgian teenagers were arrested for fauna traffic In Jane Guesthouse in Naivasha, Kenya On the edge of Hell's Gate National Park. They, with a Vietnamese and a Kenyan national, also accused of ants traffic, pleaded guilty and will be sentenced on May 7, a magistrate announced on Wednesday.

Kenyan prosecutors evaluated the convulsions of the queens taken in Giant African Colonies of harvester ants at around 1.2 million Kenyan shillings ($ 9,300).

According to the number and variety of each species found, however, Reuters calculated that transport would have been up to $ 1 million if it had reached the European coast.

“It's like cocaine,” said Dino Martins, director of Turkana Basin Institute and one of Kenya's main insects. “The price of cocaine in Colombia compared to obtaining one kilogram on the European market is such a great added value, which is why people do it.”

Based on the average cost of giant African harvest ants in six retailers in Britain, each of the approximately 5,440 queens seized Nairobi The airport in accordance with court documents is worth around £ 175 ($ 233).

Fourmis lovers pay significant sums to keep the ants of ants in large transparent vessels called Formicariums, which give an overview of their complex structures and behaviors.

But Queen's ants are vital for any colony because they are the only ones capable of laying eggs that become workers, soldiers and future queen's ants, which means that traffic can compromise essential colonies to the Kenya fauna ecosystem.

A map of Hell's Gate National Park:

Martins said that the retail value of the insect bust should be tempered by the hope that up to 90% of them would probably have died in transit by traffickers in Europe and Asia diseases, bacteria and freezing temperatures.

However, record crises have raised questions about the question of whether the breakage attempt was a single-fate of amateur amateurs, or a wider network of fauna traffickers explores new products and markets.

Antports of ants are authorized in Kenya with licenses, although the regulations are difficult to navigate, said Martins.

“We are not criminals, we are 18 years old, we are naive and I just want to go home to start my life,” said one of the Belgian accused, David Lornoy, during the trial last week.

Kenya Wildlife Service, however, said that the case reports a historical change in the biopiracie trends of large emblematic mammals to less known species which are no less critical ecologically.

“This case represents much more than the smuggling of insects,” said Erustus Kanga, managing director of KWS.

“We note that the organized crime unions diversifying the traditional poaching of ivory to target all our biodiversity-medicinal plants, from microorganisms,” he said in a statement.

Samuel Mutua, an expert in wildlife crime in the International Animal Welfare Fund, said the ANT affair is considered an organized crime. “Regardless of their age, they were able to get a lot of ants,” he said.

For Martins, the fury on the case neglects the greatest threat to insects in East Africa posed by pesticides and the destruction of the habitat which kills millions of ants every day.

The ants of Harvester, whose industry is mentioned by King Solomon in the Bible, maintains the emblematic Rift Valley in good health of Kenya by spreading and mixing grass seeds through the landscape, said Martins.

“If we lost all the elephants in Africa, we would be devastated, but the meadows would continue. If we lost all the ants and termites of the harvester, the savannah would collapse.”