Six Britons acting for Russia’s Wagner group have been sentenced to prison for igniting a located in London storage unit that was storing relief supplies intended for Ukraine.
Sentencing and Roles
Sentencing the men, the presiding judge at the Old Bailey remarked that they had planned a “series of terrorist and sabotage acts” to benefit the Russian government.
The individual named Dylan Earl was given a seventeen-year jail term with an extra six-year period on supervised release due to his “leading role”. Another defendant, Jake Reeves, from Croydon in south London, was given 12 years in jail with one year on supervised release. The offences they admitted made them the first individuals to be convicted under the National Security Act 2023.
Jakeem Rose, aged 23, also from Croydon, was sentenced to eight years and 10 months. Nii Mensah, 23, a Thornton Heath, South London local, was sentenced to nine years imprisonment and Ugnius Asmena, who was without a fixed address, was handed seven years. These three individuals were each found guilty of serious fire-setting and received a further year on supervised release by the court.
Ashton Evans, a 20-year-old individual involved in drug trafficking hailing from Newport, Gwent, was sentenced to nine years imprisonment plus a further year on supervised release after being convicted of failing to disclose details regarding acts of terrorism relating to another plot in the Mayfair area.
Details of the Attack
The deliberate fire on a Leyton-based storage facility in East London put 60 firefighters at risk and resulted in £1m in damage in March of the previous year.
The proceedings revealed that Earl, 21 and the 24-year-old Reeves did not leave their bedrooms while organising the attack for the Wagner mercenary organization, representing the Russian government.
The group targeted the warehouse because it was being used to supply humanitarian aid and StarLink satellite equipment to Ukraine.
When the same Ukrainian company was hit by an intentional fire ten days afterward in Madrid, investigators from the Metropolitan Police's anti-terror unit took over the probe.
Evidence and Further Plans
When Earl was taken into custody, police analysis of his mobile phone uncovered he had recordings of the warehouse fire being started and was in contact with the Wagner organization on the Telegram messaging app, via an account with the usernames ‘Privet Bot account’ and ‘Lucky Strike alias’.
Some of the messages showed that preliminary surveillance for further “missions”, involving arson attacks at a restaurant and wine shop in Mayfair owned by the Russian opposition figure Evgeny Chichvarkin had already been carried out. The employment of explosive devices to damage buildings was also discussed.
Investigators discovered that the defendant Earl was also considering the possibility of kidnapping the dissident Chichvarkin and “exiling him back to Russia to confront imprisonment”.
The drug dealer from Elmesthorpe, Leicestershire had talked about another potential attack in the Czech nation.
In a search of his home, police found a Russian flag, over twenty thousand pounds in currency and cocaine hydrochloride with a street value of approximately thirty-four thousand pounds.
Driving Factors and Court Comments
The court heard he was a participant in multiple pro-Russian propaganda channels and was driven by “simple and ugly greed”.
“This case is about the attempts by the Russian government to acquire harmful worldwide sway using online platforms to recruit disruptors far from the Russian capital.”
She found the fire incident had a “terrorist connection” regardless of whether the individuals responsible knew it. The Wagner organization is banned by the British authorities as a terrorist organisation.
