Just tryin’ to get a head!

mid-afternoon on Friday, the 10th of February 2006 by Chad

A Haitian national faces federal charges after baggage screeners found a human skull with teeth, hair and skin in her checked luggage at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport, authorities said Friday.Myrlene Severe, 30, a permanent U.S. resident, arrived Thursday afternoon from Cap Haitien, Haiti, aboard Lynx International Airlines Flight 210, said Barbara Gonzalez, a spokeswoman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Miami.

Customs and Border Protection officials “found a human head with organic matter inside of her checked baggage,” ICE Special Agent Erick Hernandez wrote in an affidavit in support of a criminal complaint.

Severe told authorities “she had obtained the package, which contained the human head, from a male in Haiti for … use as a part of her voodoo beliefs. Severe also stated that the purpose of the package was to ward off evil spirits,” Hernandez wrote.

“It still had teeth, hair and bits of skin and lots of dirt,” Gonzalez said.

The criminal complaint filed Friday charges Severe with smuggling a human head into the U.S. without proper documentation, failure to declare the head and transporting hazardous material in air commerce.

She faces a maximum of 15 years in prison if convicted on all charges, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida.

So just remember. When smuggling human heads, you won’t get in trouble if you fill out the paper work and send it Fedex.