A Panamanian court on Sunday handed down 12-year jail sentences to two crewmen of the Chong Chon Gang, the North Korean vessel caught smuggling weapons through the Panama Canal in 2013.

The ships’ captain and first mate were given the sentences in what appeared to be a surprise reversal of an earlier acquittal from a lower court.

Reports at the time indicated the crewmen had already left Panama, bound for Cuba.

“Panama’s Second Circuit Court first revoked that ruling and then sentenced the ship’s captain and co-pilot to 12 years in prison,” the