American musician, former paratrooper gets 13 years in Russian prison for drug trafficking

July 18 (UPI) -- Russia on Thursday sentenced American citizen Michael Travis Leake to 13 years in prison for attempted drug smuggling, according to Moscow's court service.

Leake is a musician, band manager and former paratrooper who was accused of organizing a drug trafficking operation involving young people, according to Newsweek, citing Russian state-owned news agency RIA Novosti.

When Leake was arrested on drug charges in June 2023, tabloid outlet Ren TV quoted Leake saying in a video, "I don't understand why I'm here. I don't admit guilt , I don't believe I could have done what I'm accused of because I don't know what I'm accused of."

Leake is a frontman for the band Lovi Noch, or "Catch The Night." He was a rock music producer for other bands in Moscow, too.

According to the Russian news agency Interfax, Leake was charged with packaging drugs for sale to Russian co-defendant Veronika Grabanchuk.

"In addition, Leake stored more than 1.6g of mephedrone and 0.54g of pills containing the narcotic drug MDMA at his apartment on Zaporozhskaya Street without the intention of selling them," the Interfax report said. "The drugs were found and seized during operational activities."

Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich is being held by Russia on spying charges and former U.S. Marine Paul Whelan was convicted of espionage and sentenced to 16 years in prison.

Whelan has been in prison since 2018.

Gershkovich had a closed door hearing Thursday and the court said it had concluded investigation of evidence in his case and would move to closing arguments.

Journalist and dual Russian-U.S. citizen Allsu Kurmasheva was arrested in May and accused of failing to register as a foreign agent, according to the BBC.