.A previous united state paratrooper and also rock performer detained in Russia greater than a year earlier on medication fees was actually punished to 13 years in prison on Thursday, the Moscow court system's media solution pointed out.Michael Travis Leake, who faced the Moscow-based stone band Lovi Noch, was actually apprehended in June 2023 after district attorneys implicated him of "arranging a drug handling organization involving youths.".Moscow's Khamovnitchesky Courthouse found him bad of crimes connected to the purchase of unlawful anesthetics, the courthouse's press solution pointed out in an article on Telegram. He was actually sentenced to 13 years in a maximum-security penitentiary colony.Leake was actually put behind bars along with Veronika Grabanchuk, yet another accused pronounced guilty of drug fees. Her relationship to Leake was certainly not quickly clear.Arrests of united state consumers in Russia have boosted in recent times, in what Washington sees as a Kremlin maneuver to get the release of Russians sentenced abroad.Among other American citizens held in Russian prisons are past marines Robert Gilman and also Paul Whelan, as well as journalists Evan Gershkovich and also Alsu Kurmasheva.