.A past U.S. paratrooper as well as rock musician apprehended in Russia much more than a year earlier on medication fees was penalized to thirteen years in prison on Thursday, the Moscow court system's press service said.Michael Travis Leake, who faced the Moscow-based rock band Lovi Noch, was actually restrained in June 2023 after prosecutors charged him of "organizing a medication working organization including youths.".Moscow's Khamovnitchesky Courthouse located him guilty of criminal activities linked to the purchase of prohibited anesthetics, the courtroom's press solution said in a blog post on Telegram. He was sentenced to 13 years in a maximum-security prison colony.Leake was actually put behind bars along with Veronika Grabanchuk, one more accused convicted of drug fees. Her association to Leake was certainly not quickly very clear.Arrests of united state consumers in Russia have enhanced over the last few years, in what Washington considers a Kremlin scheme to protect the release of Russians convicted abroad.To name a few American consumers kept in Russian jails are past marines Robert Gilman and also Paul Whelan, along with journalists Evan Gershkovich as well as Alsu Kurmasheva.