Mr Villanueva was identified and arrested on Monday. It is unclear whether he has hired a lawyer who can speak on his behalf.

The gruesome discovery in Victorville, 80 miles (130km) northeast of Los Angeles, had locals worried about a possible serial killer on the loose.

The item was found around midday on Sunday at the filling station on Bear Valley Road when a witness called police to report that “a teddy bear made of what looked like human flesh was left in front of the business”.

A video posted online shows police responding to the scene as a glove-clad official from the coroner’s office examines the object and places it into an evidence bag.

A statement from the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s office on Monday did not mention a potential motive, and said the “investigation into who left the teddy bear at the business is continuing”.

“Incidents such as this take up valuable emergency resources and put the public at risk, possibly delaying response time to legitimate calls for service,” the statement said.

“We would like to thank those that reported information that was helpful during the investigation of this case.”

South Carolina artist Robert Kelly has taken credit for creating the object, telling US media that he recently sold the figure to a buyer in Victorville.

“Our work is pretty easily recognisable, and people were sending the articles (about the petrol station) left and right. I looked, and sure enough it was the bear I sent out last week,” Mr Kelly told People magazine.

“Every artist wants credit [for] their work, so I said ‘I made that’, and haven’t been able to catch up with messages since.”

In a post to Facebook on Sunday, Mr Kelly denied having any knowledge of what the buyer intended to do with the bear.

“No I did not have any knowledge of the [buyer’s] intentions nor was I involved in a prank on the other side of the nation from me,” he wrote.

Mr Kelly, who sells his work through a shop on the website Etsy, specialises in horror creations for Halloween displays and films.

Other items are also made to resemble construction from human body parts, similar to the bear.

Neither Rutte nor Trump elaborated on the weaponry that will be sent to Kyiv but Rutte said the deal included “missiles and ammunition”.

However, the president did say “top-of-the-line-weapons” worth billions of dollars would be “quickly distributed to the battlefield” in order to support Ukraine.

“If I was Vladimir Putin today… I would reconsider whether I should not take negotiations about Ukraine more seriously,” Rutte said, as Trump nodded.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on X that he spoke with Trump after his meeting with Rutte, and thanked him for his “willingness to support Ukraine and to continue working together to stop the killings and establish a lasting and just peace”.

“We discussed the necessary means and solutions with the President to provide better protection for people from Russian attacks and to strengthen our positions. We are ready to work as productively as possible to achieve peace,” he said.