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

Ellsworth Toohey
Apr 07, 2026
∙ Paid

Tropical giant ant (Camponotus gigas). Borneo, Malaysia (corlaffra/shutterstock.com)

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…

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