A young man in West Palm Beach, Florida, was keeping poisonous snakes in his home, illegally.
While investigating a complaint last week, authorities discovered more than 20 snakes in the townhouse home of 29-year-old Brian Buchkowski. Some were kept in closets. Others were discovered under the bathroom sink. 10 of these serpents were venomous, including five copperheads, three monocled cobras, one black-and-white spitting cobra and a white-lipped pit viper, as reported by CBS12.
While owning poisonous snakes is illegal, obtaining them is not that difficult. However, obtaining the proper licenses is very difficult.
"Most certainly we know that in the pet trade there is an underground or black market where people will obtain things if they don't have the proper licenses," Busch Wildlife Sanctuary Executive Director David Hitzig said in a statement.
During the bust, Buchkowski attempted to lie more than once to the state wildlife officer who responded to the complaint and investigated his home on Green Springs Place, the Orlando Sentinel reports.
The snakes were confiscated and turned over to a person who possesses the proper permits, and Buchkowski was cited for several violations. These violations included not obtaining the licenses needed to keep poisonous snakes, lacking documentation on their ownership, not locking the poisonous snakes' enclosures, not labelling the enclosures with "Danger, Venomous Reptiles" and more.