.A previous U.S. paratrooper as well as rock artist confined in Russia more than a year earlier on medicine charges was penalized to thirteen years in prison on Thursday, the Moscow court device's media company pointed out.Michael Travis Leake, that fronted the Moscow-based stone band Lovi Noch, was actually apprehended in June 2023 after district attorneys indicted him of "arranging a medication handling business involving young people.".Moscow's Khamovnitchesky Courthouse located him responsible of criminal activities linked to the purchase of prohibited drugs, the courthouse's press company claimed in an article on Telegram. He was punished to 13 years in a maximum-security jail swarm.Leake was actually put behind bars together with Veronika Grabanchuk, yet another offender pronounced guilty of drug costs. Her connection to Leake was not instantly clear.Arrests of united state consumers in Russia have actually raised in recent times, in what Washington views as a Kremlin tactic to protect the release of Russians convicted abroad.And many more United States residents composed Russian prisons are actually past marines Robert Gilman and Paul Whelan, and also writers Evan Gershkovich and Alsu Kurmasheva.