Six Britons working on behalf of the Wagner mercenary group linked to Russia have been sentenced to prison for setting fire to a London-based warehouse that was holding humanitarian aid destined for Ukraine.
Court Rulings and Involvement
Sentencing the men, the presiding judge at the Old Bailey remarked that they had planned a “campaign of terrorism and sabotage” to benefit the Russian state.
Dylan Earl received a 17-year jail term with an extra six-year period on extended licence due to his “primary involvement”. Another defendant, Jake Reeves, a resident of Croydon, South London, was sentenced to twelve years in prison with an additional year on extended licence. Their admitted crimes made them the first individuals to be found guilty under the 2023 National Security Act.
Jakeem Rose, also a Croydon resident, was sentenced to a term of eight years and ten months. Nii Mensah, 23, a Thornton Heath, South London local, was given nine years and Ugnius Asmena, 21, who was homeless, was handed seven years. These three individuals were each found guilty of aggravated arson and received a further year on supervised release by the judge.
Ashton Evans drug dealer from Newport in Gwent, was jailed for nine years plus a further year on extended licence after being found guilty of failing to disclose information about terrorist acts connected to a separate scheme in Mayfair.
Details of the Attack
The deliberate fire on a Leyton-based storage facility in East London endangered sixty fire service personnel and caused £1m in damage in March last year.
The court heard that the 21-year-old Earl and the 24-year-old Reeves remained in their residences while coordinating the incident for the Wagner mercenary organization, representing the Russian Federation.
The individuals involved targeted the warehouse because it was being used to supply emergency relief and StarLink satellite equipment to Ukraine.
When the same Ukrainian company was hit by an arson attack 10 days later in Madrid, detectives from the Met’s counter-terrorism command assumed control of the probe.
Evidence and Further Plans
When Earl was taken into custody, police analysis of his mobile phone revealed he had recordings of the warehouse fire being initiated and was in communication with the Wagner organization on the Telegram messaging app, via an account with the handles ‘Privet Bot account’ and ‘Lucky Strike alias’.
Some of the messages indicated that reconnaissance for further “missions”, involving arson attacks at a dining establishment and wine shop in Mayfair belonging to the Russian opposition figure Evgeny Chichvarkin had already been carried out. The employment of explosive devices to harm structures was also deliberated.
Detectives found that the defendant Earl was also raising the potential abduction of Chichvarkin and “sending him back to Russia to face prison”.
The individual involved in narcotics from Elmesthorpe in Leicestershire had talked about another potential attack in the Czech Republic.
In a search of his home, law enforcement found a flag of Russia, 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 proceedings revealed he was a participant in multiple pro-Russian propaganda channels and was driven by “plain and severe avarice”.
“This case is about the attempts by the Russian government to gain pernicious global influence using social media to recruit disruptors far from the Russian capital.”
She found the arson attack had a “terrorist connection” regardless of whether the perpetrators were aware of it. The Wagner organization is proscribed by the British authorities as a terrorist group.
