A Kenyan court sentenced four people on Wednesday, including two Belgian teenagers, to one year in prison or a fine of more than $7,000 for attempting to smuggle thousands of live rare ants out of the country.

The case has caught the public imagination, with the Kenyan Wildlife Service (KWS) accusing the four of engaging in “bio-piracy” for attempting to transport the rare ants out of the country.

David Lornoy and Seppe Lodewijckx, both 18 of Belgium, Duh Hung Nguyen of Vietnam, and Dennis Nganga of Kenya had all pleaded guilty to possession of the ants, but had denied seeking to traffic the insects.

Lornoy and Lodewijckx were arrested in possession of 5,000 queen ants packed in 2,244 tubes in Nakuru County, around 160 kilometres (100 miles) from the capital, Nairobi.

Duh and Nganga were found with ants stored in 140 syringes packed with cotton wool and two containers, according to a charge sheet seen by AFP.

The two cases were separate, but all four were tried together.

Possession of any wildlife specimen or trophy without a permit is a criminal offence in Kenya, and the suspects were facing a fine of up to $10,000 and five years or more in prison.

The court on Wednesday said the suspects could either spend a year in prison or pay a fine of one million shillings ($7,740), which is what the police estimated as the value of the seized ants.

The insects included the ecologically significant Messor cephalotes species native to the region, and investigators said the storage system would allow them to survive during transport for up to two months.

The KWS brought the case against the suspects, saying it was not only a “wildlife crime but also constitutes bio-piracy”.

The suspects “intended to smuggle the ants to high-value exotic pet markets in Europe and Asia, where demand for rare insect species is rising,” it said in a statement.