.A former united state paratrooper as well as rock musician detained in Russia more than a year earlier on medicine fees was punished to 13 years in prison on Thursday, the Moscow court body's media service pointed out.Michael Travis Leake, that faced the Moscow-based stone band Lovi Noch, was confined in June 2023 after prosecutors accused him of "organizing a drug handling organization involving youths.".Moscow's Khamovnitchesky Courtroom located him guilty of unlawful acts hooked up to the sale of unlawful drugs, the courthouse's media service claimed in a message on Telegram. He was actually penalized to thirteen years in a maximum-security penitentiary colony.Leake was actually incarcerated along with Veronika Grabanchuk, an additional defendant convicted of drug charges. Her relationship to Leake was actually certainly not quickly crystal clear.Arrests of united state citizens in Russia have boosted in recent years, in what Washington considers a Kremlin ploy to secure the release of Russians pronounced guilty abroad.And many more United States residents kept in Russian jails are previous marines Robert Gilman and also Paul Whelan, as well as journalists Evan Gershkovich and Alsu Kurmasheva.