MOSCOW (AP) — An American musician who has lived in Russia for greater than a decade has been arrested on suspicion of drug trafficking, Russian information media reported Saturday.
The experiences mentioned Michael Travis Leake is suspected of promoting mephedrone, whose results are very similar to the ones of cocaine and MDMA. A Moscow court docket ordered him to be held for 2 months in pre-trial detention, the experiences mentioned.
He faces fees of manufacturing or distribution of gear, which elevate a sentence of as much as twenty years in jail.
An Instagram web page underneath the title Travis Leake Instagram identifies him because the singer for the band Lovi Noch (Clutch the Evening). Information experiences mentioned Leake is a former paratrooper with the U.S. army and has lived in Moscow since 2010.
Russian drug regulations are strict. WNBA celebrity Brittney Griner was once arrested in February 2022 after vape canisters containing hashish oil have been present in her baggage at a Moscow airport. She was once sentenced to 9 years in jail, however was once launched in December in an alternate for U.S.-imprisoned Russian hands broker Viktor Bout.
The U.S. State Division mentioned in an emailed commentary to The Related Press that it was once conscious about the experiences {that a} U.S. citizen had just lately been arrested in Moscow. It mentioned when a U.S. citizen is detained out of the country, the dep. “pursues consular get right of entry to once imaginable and works to supply all suitable consular help.”
The dep. mentioned it could haven’t any additional remark because of privateness issues.