End of $ 7,700 or one year in prison two Belgian teenagers found 5,000 ants in Kenya
A Kenya court imposed a fine of $ 7,700 (6,775 euros) or a prison sentence of 12 months to two Belgian teenagers to whom 5,000 ants were found to violate the laws preservation of wildlife.
The teenagers were found with antswhich according to the authorities were intended for European and Asian markets, in an emerging trend of Traffic of wildlife species Less known.
The Belgians Lornay David and knew LodewijckxBoth 19 years old, They were arrested on April 5 with 5,000 ants In a guest house. On April 15, they were accused of violating the laws on the conservation of fauna.
Judge Njeri Thuku, of the court of the main airport of Nairobi, said in his sentence, that, Although the teenagers told the Court who had fun aloneThe species in question is precious and had thousands of them.
The teenagers had entered the country with a tourist visa e They stayed in a pension in the western city of Naivasha, popular among tourists for their animal parks and lakes.
Suddenly His customers did not know that what they were doing was illegal. Kenya’s Wildlife Service (KWS) said that the case represented “A change in traffic trends: of great emblematic mammals to less known but ecologically critical species. “
The illegal export of ants “Not only the sovereign rights of Kenya pursuant to his biodiversity, but also deprives local communities and the research institutes of possible ecological and economic benefits,” said the KW in a note.
In a different but correlated case, Kenya Dennis ng’ang’a and Vietnamese Duh Hung Nguyen were accused after being found in possession of 400 ants in the apartment of your capitalIn Nairobi.
The kWs had declared it The four suspicions were involved in the ants traffic For markets from Europe and Asia, and that there were Cefaloti Mesor among the species, a large honey reaper of large honey and red color of Eastern Africa.
Ants are purchased by people who have them as pets and observe them in their colonies. VThe European Arian Websites have put on sale different species of ants At various prices. The 5,400 ants found to the four men were assessed at 1.2 million Kenyan chernies (8,104 euros), according to KWS.
