Outside a Kenyan court, two shell-shocked teenagers were comforted by their families.
"We are not criminals, we are 18 years old, we are naive, and I just want to go home to start my life," one said.
Their crime?
Ant smuggling.
Lornoy David and Seppe Lodewijckx claimed they had collected the ants for "fun" and didn't know it was illegal when authorities descended on their guest house in Kenya last month.
The young men, originally from Belgium, were found to be in possession of about 5,000 ants, including messor cephalotes — a distinctive, large and rose-coloured harvester ant native to East Africa.
The teenagers' lawyer would later claim they had been collecting the ants as a hobby, but the Kenya Wildlife Service charged them with planning to traffic the ants to markets in Europe and Asia.
It said the teenagers had packed the ants into about 2,200 test tubes filled with cotton wool to help them survive, and the value of the seizure would equate to about 1.2 million Kenyan shillings ($14,367).
Magistrate Njeri Thuku gave the young men the option of either paying about 1 million Kenyan shillings fine, or serving 12 months in prison over the seizure.
"This is beyond a hobby," Magistrate Thuku said.
"Indeed, there is a biting shortage of messor cephalotes online."
Why is ant smuggling so valuable?
Two other men were also charged last month over attempting to traffic ants.
The Kenyan Wildlife Authority said they had about 400 stashed in their apartments, which equated to about $1 million Kenyan shillings.
Reuters reported if the ants seized from the teenagers' raid and the second raid were able to make it to European shores, it would have fetched about 124 million Kenyan shillings.
One of Kenyan's leading insect experts Dino Martins said the value of the ants would have gone up depending on where they were shipped, particularly because at least 90 per cent would have died during transit.
"It's like cocaine," he said.
"The price of cocaine in Colombia versus getting a kilogram in the European market is such a big value addition, that's why people do it."
Why is it so serious?
The Kenya Wildlife Service director Erustus Kanga said the cases marked a turn away from big game trade on the black market.
"This case represents far more than insect smuggling," he said.
"We're seeing organised crime syndicates diversify from traditional ivory poaching to target our entire biodiversity — from medicinal plants, insects to micro-organisms."
It's a trend noticed by the University of Adelaide's Wildlife Crime Research Hub expert Charlotte Lassaline.
"The global wildlife trade is evolving in many ways," she said.
"Increased online connectivity has made it significantly easier to access non-native species, often with limited regulation, varying degrees of anonymity, and minimal traceability.
"At the same time, rising living costs and urbanisation have driven more people into smaller living spaces, such as apartments, where traditional pets like dogs and cats may be impractical due to space or expense.
"As a result, there is growing interest in more unusual yet easier-to-keep pets — particularly terrestrial invertebrates, such as ants, large burrowing cockroaches, snails, spiders, and scorpions."
Ms Lassaline said some rare queen ants, which were essential to establishing a colony, could sell for up to more than 33,000 Kenyan shillings.
"Their high demand and limited availability make them especially vulnerable to illegal collection and poaching," she said.
Ms Lassaline, who works tracking the illegal trade of animals in Australia and abroad, said it was particularly concerning to see ants were being targeted by traffickers.
"Australian ant species are not only being sought after by hobbyists and collectors, but that their growing popularity could leave them vulnerable to illegal collection and poaching," she said.
"Despite their size, ants play a big role in maintaining healthy ecosystems.
"Disrupting their populations through unregulated trade or overharvesting could have far-reaching ecological consequences."
