.A former U.S. paratrooper and rock performer restrained in Russia greater than a year earlier on drug charges was penalized to 13 years behind bars on Thursday, the Moscow court unit's media company stated.Michael Travis Leake, that overlooked the Moscow-based stone band Lovi Noch, was apprehended in June 2023 after district attorneys implicated him of "coordinating a medication working business entailing youngsters.".Moscow's Khamovnitchesky Courtroom found him responsible of unlawful acts attached to the sale of unlawful drugs, the court's press service said in a blog post on Telegram. He was actually sentenced to 13 years in a maximum-security prison colony.Leake was actually incarcerated along with Veronika Grabanchuk, another offender convicted of medication costs. Her relation to Leake was certainly not quickly very clear.Arrests of USA citizens in Russia have increased lately, in what Washington considers a Kremlin ploy to safeguard the release of Russians sentenced abroad.Among other United States residents held in Russian prisons are past marines Robert Gilman and also Paul Whelan, and also writers Evan Gershkovich as well as Alsu Kurmasheva.