A group of six individuals from Britain acting for Russia’s Wagner group have been sentenced to prison for setting fire to a London-based storage unit that was holding relief supplies destined for Ukraine.
Sentencing and Roles
Sentencing the men, the judge at the Old Bailey remarked that they had planned a “campaign of terrorism and sabotage” in the interests of the Russian state.
Dylan Earl was given a seventeen-year prison sentence with an additional six years on extended licence due to his “primary involvement”. Another defendant, Jake Reeves, from Croydon in south London, was given twelve years in prison with one 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 jailed for a term of eight years and ten months. Nii Mensah, a Thornton Heath, South London local, was given nine years and Ugnius Asmena, 21, who was homeless, was given seven years in prison. The trio were each convicted of aggravated arson and given a further year on supervised release by the judge.
Ashton Evans drug dealer from Newport in Gwent, was sentenced to nine years plus a further year on extended licence after being found guilty of withholding information about acts of terrorism connected to another plot in Mayfair.
Details of the Attack
The deliberate fire on a warehouse in Leyton, east London put 60 firefighters at risk and resulted in one million pounds worth of destruction in March of the previous year.
The proceedings revealed that the 21-year-old Earl and the 24-year-old Reeves did not leave their bedrooms while coordinating the incident for the Wagner group, representing the Russian government.
The group selected the storage facility because it was being used to supply emergency relief and satellite communication gear to Ukraine.
When the same Ukrainian company was subjected to an arson attack 10 days later in the Spanish capital, detectives from the Met’s counter-terrorism command took over the investigation.
Proof and Additional Schemes
When Earl was arrested, police analysis of his mobile phone uncovered he had videos of the storage facility blaze being started and was in contact with the Wagner group on the Telegram messaging app, via an account with the handles ‘Privet Bot’ and ‘Lucky Strike alias’.
Some of the communications showed that reconnaissance for further “missions”, involving arson attacks at a restaurant and wine shop in Mayfair district belonging to the Russian dissident Evgeny Chichvarkin had already taken place. The employment of explosive devices to harm structures was also deliberated.
Investigators discovered that the defendant Earl was also raising the potential abduction of the dissident Chichvarkin and “exiling him back to Russia to confront imprisonment”.
The drug dealer from Elmesthorpe in Leicestershire had talked about another potential attack in the Czech Republic.
In a residence inspection, police found a flag of Russia, more than £20,000 in cash and cocaine hydrochloride with a street value of about £34,000.
Driving Factors and Court Comments
The court heard he was a participant in numerous pro-Russian propaganda channels and was motivated by “plain and severe avarice”.
“This legal matter concerns the attempts by the Russian government to gain pernicious global influence using online platforms to enlist saboteurs vast distances from Moscow.”
She found the fire incident had a “terrorist connection” regardless of whether the perpetrators were aware of it. The Wagner group is proscribed by the UK government as a terrorist group.
