.A previous U.S. paratrooper and rock artist confined in Russia more than a year back on medicine costs was sentenced to 13 years in prison on Thursday, the Moscow court unit's press company mentioned.Michael Travis Leake, who faced the Moscow-based rock band Lovi Noch, was actually detained in June 2023 after prosecutors implicated him of "organizing a drug dealing company entailing youngsters.".Moscow's Khamovnitchesky Courtroom located him responsible of criminal activities hooked up to the sale of prohibited narcotics, the court's press company said in an article on Telegram. He was actually penalized to thirteen years in a maximum-security prison colony.Leake was jailed along with Veronika Grabanchuk, yet another defendant pronounced guilty of drug costs. Her relationship to Leake was actually not promptly crystal clear.Arrests of U.S. consumers in Russia have boosted in recent years, in what Washington views as a Kremlin scheme to safeguard the launch of Russians pronounced guilty abroad.To name a few American consumers held in Russian jails are previous marines Robert Gilman as well as Paul Whelan, as well as writers Evan Gershkovich and also Alsu Kurmasheva.