I hope I put this in the right place, if not I'm sorry.

This morning I heard on the news that 12 snakes, they were BP's, were seized from a local home. The were seized due to neglect, no food or water poor conditions, and "illegal on-line sales". The news did not elaborate any further than that. So I may be naive or just miss understanding something, but if there is no regulation, other than shipping company policies, against on-line sales and shipping of BP's. What could be some of the reasons for "illegal on-line sale"?