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Eighteen human heads were discovered at Chicago ’s O’Hare International Airport in a cargo shipment from Rome . What may be most surprising about the discovery is that these consignment are ostensibly quite quotidian .
" Everybody here is ' Oh my gosh , you start out a box of heads ' and everybody conceive that it ’s unheard of,“Brian Bell , an official with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security , separate theChicago Sun - Times . " There ’s nothing against the legal philosophy that suppose you may not transport them , provided you have the right documentation . "
Human heads and other strange cargo are routine investigations for customs officials.
The " right documentation " in this subject would name the skull as unremarkable medical items , according toNBC News . The heads had been shipped to O’Hare from a licit inquiry readiness in Italy where they were by rights embalmed , wrapped and trail as human clay .
The only reason the shipment was stopped at all , the Sun - Times reported , was a minor paperwork snafu . The skulls on the face of it originated in the United States , were shipped to Italy for aesculapian inquiry , and then were sent back for cremation in brief before Christmas 2012 .
After being held up at O’Hare since December , the skulls may at last be on the final wooden leg of their retentive journey : This morn , a representative from a crematorium in suburban Schiller Park , Ill. , arrived at O’Hare to claim the skulls .
Customs functionary have , of course , seen plenty of unknown payload , from endangered coinage destine for theinternational trade in exotic petstoancient artifactsstolen from museums . In December , a cleaning lady from Panama was busted for attempting to smugglecocaine hidden in her tit implants .
