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
First Published: Saturday, February 13, 2010, 09:53