.A former USA paratrooper and also stone artist confined in Russia greater than a year earlier on medicine charges was actually sentenced to thirteen years behind bars on Thursday, the Moscow court of law system's media company said.Michael Travis Leake, that faced the Moscow-based rock band Lovi Noch, was actually detained in June 2023 after prosecutors charged him of "coordinating a drug dealing business including youngsters.".Moscow's Khamovnitchesky Courthouse discovered him guilty of unlawful acts linked to the sale of prohibited drugs, the courthouse's media company said in an article on Telegram. He was actually punished to thirteen years in a maximum-security prison swarm.Leake was actually imprisoned together with Veronika Grabanchuk, yet another offender pronounced guilty of drug charges. Her connection to Leake was actually certainly not immediately clear.Arrests of united state residents in Russia have increased in recent times, in what Washington views as a Kremlin tactic to safeguard the release of Russians pronounced guilty abroad.And many more United States people held in Russian jails are former marines Robert Gilman and also Paul Whelan, and also writers Evan Gershkovich and Alsu Kurmasheva.