June 21, 2010 (Pen Men at Work): It was not less than a horror flick for a Southwest Airlines employee on Wednesday, when he found a box filled with 40 to 60 human heads at a cargo facility last week in Little Rock.

“The official was examining an oversized box, which was not labeled properly. Then they called up the local authorities”, informed a Southwest spokeswoman.

These heads were being supplied to a facility in Fort Worth, Texas. They were supposed to be sent for educational training for neurosurgeons.

In fact, the transport of human heads and other body parts is not rare in aboard commercial airliners. For various medical research works, such body parts are shipped to labs all throughout the country.

It created a big suspicion as among the authorities in Little Rock, Ark because the box was on the way to a Fort Worth-based medical research firm Medtronic. Lots of foul play is being suspected.

Local coroner Garland Camper said, “A black market for human body parts exists and we want to make sure that the specimens weren’t involved with that dreadful trade.”

Medtronic said the supplier JLS Consulting of Wynne, Ark is responsible for the mislabeling. Again, the founder of JLS’s blamed the private courier.

The truth will come out in time for sure. But the most important issue is how this trade is running so easily in the country if the heads are at all targeted for that purpose?

The authorities must take the issue very seriously in order to stop this illegal trade.