Overview
- Kenyan officials arrested 27-year-old Zhang Kequn on March 10 at Nairobi’s Jomo Kenyatta International Airport with 1,948 queens in test tubes and about 300 more in tissue rolls.
- A court approved his detention as Kenya Wildlife Service conducts forensic analysis of an iPhone and a MacBook recovered during the arrest.
- Immigration records show a stop order had been placed on Zhang’s passport after he allegedly evaded arrest in Kenya last year.
- KWS reported a separate consignment sourced from Kenya was seized in Bangkok the same day, and investigators say Zhang named three local accomplices.
- The ants are reported to be Messor cephalotes, a species prized by collectors in Europe and Asia, and prior Kenyan cases in 2025 resulted in $7,700 fines per defendant under wildlife law.