Unusual contraband seized by French authorities last year exposed the illegal trade in endangered wildlife between Africa and the United States.

Customs agents at Charles De Gaulle Airport in Paris found 392 monkey skulls and 326 skulls of other animals in the luggage of smugglers during a seven-month period in 2022, Sputnik News reported.

Authorities believe American collectors and hunting clubs bought the contraband. According to SN, the skulls ended up in the Natural History Museum in Aix-en-Provence in southern France for scientific evaluation.

In Utah, USA, the Transportation Security Administration said that vigilant security officers at the Salt Lake City International Airport also found a skull in one bag while an X-ray machine was scanning it on 18 September.

The human skull raised an alarm that forced the TSA to halt baggage screening for two hours so the item could be safely inspected and removed if necessary.

Unidentifiable components resembling an improvised explosive device were inside the skull and regarded as a potential security threat.

A police bomb squad with a bomb-sniffing dog was brought in, and the passenger who owned the baggage was called.

The passenger said it was a plastic skull with a built-in battery and sensor. Neurosurgeons use the medical training device to teach how to conduct a brain operation called a lobotomy.

Fox News reported that the passenger was bringing the skull to a trade show in Cancun, Mexico, but TSA said it was not allowed to be transported on a commercial aircraft.

According to Fox News, TSA officials confiscated the device and told the traveler to pick it up when he returned to Utah.