Four human skulls found at Mexico airport in package bound for US

Four human skulls have been discovered at a Mexican airport inside a package which was due to be sent to the US by courier.

Officers from Mexico’s National Guard were called to Queretaro Intercontinental Airport in central Mexico, after an x-ray machine detected strange shapes inside a cardboard box.

When they opened the package, they found four human skulls wrapped in plastic and aluminum foil.

The box had been sent from the southern city of Apaztingan, in Michoacan state, and was destined for an address in Manning, South Carolina, said the National Guard.

Michoacan is one of Mexico’s most violent states, and the city of Apatzingan has long been dominated by the Viagras drug cartel.

The Guard gave no further details on the age or identity of the people to whom the skulls belonged, or of a possible motive for the sending of the human remains.

It said the shipment, regardless of how the skulls were obtained or whether they were meant for medical study, may violate Mexican laws on the handling of corpses.

The transfer of human remains requires a special permit from a competent health authority which was not obtained, it said.