New Delhi, May 9 -- Four men in Kenya face a year in prison or $7,700 fine for trying to smuggle thousands of live giant African harvester queen ants (Messor cephalotes) out of the country.

The court sentence May 7, 2025 were for two Belgian teenagers, a Vietnamese man and a Kenyan national who were arrested in April 2025 on charges of attempting to smuggle around 5,440 queen ants in modified test tubes and syringes. The ants were being shipped to collectors in Europe and Asia.

The Belgians were found with 5,000 ants, while the other two were found with more than 300 ants. The ants were packed in test tubes filled with cotton wool to help them survive for months, authorities said.

The ants were estimated to be worth nearly a million...