.A previous USA paratrooper and also rock performer detained in Russia much more than a year back on medication fees was actually punished to 13 years behind bars on Thursday, the Moscow court of law unit's media solution said.Michael Travis Leake, that overlooked the Moscow-based stone band Lovi Noch, was confined in June 2023 after prosecutors charged him of "organizing a medicine handling company involving youths.".Moscow's Khamovnitchesky Courthouse located him bad of unlawful acts linked to the purchase of illegal anesthetics, the courtroom's media company pointed out in a message on Telegram. He was actually sentenced to thirteen years in a maximum-security penitentiary colony.Leake was actually put behind bars alongside Veronika Grabanchuk, an additional defendant founded guilty of drug fees. Her relationship to Leake was actually certainly not promptly crystal clear.Arrests of USA citizens in Russia have actually enhanced recently, in what Washington considers a Kremlin maneuver to get the launch of Russians sentenced abroad.Among other American people kept in Russian jails are former marines Robert Gilman as well as Paul Whelan, and also writers Evan Gershkovich and Alsu Kurmasheva.