.A previous USA paratrooper and rock performer confined in Russia greater than a year back on drug charges was actually punished to thirteen years in prison on Thursday, the Moscow court body's media solution said.Michael Travis Leake, that fronted the Moscow-based stone band Lovi Noch, was apprehended in June 2023 after district attorneys implicated him of "managing a drug dealing organization involving young people.".Moscow's Khamovnitchesky Court located him guilty of criminal activities hooked up to the purchase of unlawful narcotics, the court's press solution said in an article on Telegram. He was actually penalized to thirteen years in a maximum-security jail colony.Leake was actually incarcerated alongside Veronika Grabanchuk, one more offender founded guilty of medication fees. Her relationship to Leake was certainly not immediately clear.Arrests of USA people in Russia have actually increased over the last few years, in what Washington considers a Kremlin tactic to protect the launch of Russians sentenced abroad.To name a few American people held in Russian prisons are actually past marines Robert Gilman as well as Paul Whelan, and also reporters Evan Gershkovich and also Alsu Kurmasheva.