US Justice Department says the swap in the Russian spy case has been successfully completed

DOJ announces successful completion of spy swap

WASHINGTON — The spy swap between the United States and Russia has been successfully carried out, the Justice Department announced Friday.

The switch took place in Vienna, the department said, with the United States transferring 10 Russian agents arrested in the U.S. on June 27 and the release by Russia of four people who had been imprisoned there.

“The exchange of these individuals … has been completed,” said the statement by Justice Department spokesman Dean Boyd.

Meanwhile, a Russian news agency said a plane carrying the 10 has landed in Moscow.

British media say the U.S. plane later brought the four Russians convicted of spying for the West to a U.K. military base in southern England.

Earlier at the airport in Vienna, two planes — one from New York’s La Guardia airport and another from Moscow — had arrived within minutes of each other, parked nose-to-tail at a remote section on the tarmac, then spent about an hour and a half before departing just as quickly. A small bus was seen driving between the two planes.