Bangkok: Thailand on Friday deported members of a foreign plane crew accused of smuggling arms from North Korea, a day after prosecutors dropped all charges against them.
The five crew members, from Kazakhstan and Belarus, were escorted to Bangkok`s Suvannabhumi airport by at least a dozen police, and left Friday evening on an Air Astana flight for Almaty, Kazakhstan.
The five were arrested on December 12 when the Ilyushin Il-76 cargo plane they were flying from Pyongyang landed in Bangkok. Thai authorities, acting on a tip from the United States, found 35 tons of weapons on board.
North Korea is barred under UN sanctions from exporting weapons.
Flight documents indicated the plane`s destination was Iran, but officials there denied they were importing weapons.
PTI
