River-baby dad bust

Grabbed at Thailand airport after fleeing NY

The father of the baby found dead in the East River near the South Street Seaport was stopped at a Thailand airport before he could enter the country — and will be brought back to the Big Apple to face criminal charges, cops said Wednesday.

MTA station cleaner James Currie, the father of the 7-month-old Mason Saldana, will be formally arrested on a charge of concealment of a corpse when he is returned to the city in about a week, said NYPD Chief of Detectives Dermot Shea.

The baby is believed to have died at Currie’s Bronx apartment before being dumped in the river, police said.

The child, wearing only a diaper, was pulled out of the water near the South Street Seaport at about 4 p.m. Sunday.

According to police officials, Currie picked Mason up at the home of the baby’s mother — also in The Bronx — at about 12:30 p.m. Saturday.

About 20 minutes later, he is seen on surveillance footage returning to his home in Co-Op City with the child alive and apparently healthy, Shea said.

The next day, Currie is again seen on video leaving his residence with a backpack on the front of his body and covered with a blanket.

“We believe at this time that the child was deceased in that 24-hour period,” Shea said.

Roughly 50 minutes before the baby was discovered in the river, Currie was seen walking near the Seaport and carrying a backpack.

When the baby was found, a backpack was recovered near his body.

At 2:19 p.m. Monday, Currie boarded a flight at JFK to Bangkok, and about seven hours later, police received a 911 call from the baby’s mother, authorities said.

Shea said Currie landed in Bangkok but “was never admitted into the country. He will be returned here.”

Mason’s mother told cops she feared the worst when she saw a news report about a baby being pulled from the river.

She and Currie are not married and had only the one child together, according to Shea.

A cause of death is not yet known.