Smugglers were caught with 5,000 Kenyan queen ants worth $220 each

A Chinese national was arrested at Nairobi's Jomo Kenyatta International Airport carrying 5,000 giant queen ants — Messor cephalotes, a species prized in the exotic pet trade at $220 per ant. The ants were packed into test tubes stuffed with cotton wool, each tube sealed to keep its cargo alive for the journey. The haul had a street value somewhere north of $1 million.

A separate bust near Gilgil, a town in the Rift Valley, netted more of the same species. The BBC reports that Messor cephalotes is a large harvester ant native to East Africa, where colonies can number in the tens of thousands. Queens are the valuable commodity — they're the ones that found new colonies, which is exactly what ant-keeping hobbyists in Europe and Asia want.

Wildlife trafficking in Kenya usually conjures images of ivory or rhino horn, but the exotic insect trade has been growing alongside it. Ants require no refrigeration, produce no smell, and fit inside carry-on luggage with room to spare. A test tube full of cotton wool can easily be smuggled past a security checkpoint.

Previously:

• Two teens busted for smuggling 5,000 ants