A group of six individuals from Britain working on behalf of Russia’s Wagner group have been sentenced to prison for igniting a London-based warehouse that was storing humanitarian aid destined for Ukraine.
Sentencing and Roles
While delivering the sentences, the judge at the central criminal court remarked that they had planned a “campaign of terrorism and sabotage” in the interests of the Russian government.
The individual named Dylan Earl received a seventeen-year jail term with an additional six years on extended licence due to his “primary involvement”. Jake Reeves, a resident of Croydon, South London, was given 12 years in prison with an additional year on supervised release. The offences they admitted resulted in them being the initial persons to be found guilty under the National Security Act 2023.
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, who was homeless, was handed seven years. These three individuals were each found guilty of serious fire-setting and given a further year on extended licence by the court.
Ashton Evans, a 20-year-old individual involved in drug trafficking from Newport in Gwent, was sentenced to nine years plus a further year on supervised release after being found guilty of withholding information about terrorist acts connected to a separate scheme in the Mayfair area.
Details of the Attack
The deliberate fire on a warehouse in Leyton, east London endangered sixty fire service personnel and caused £1m in damage in March last year.
The proceedings revealed that the 21-year-old Earl and the 24-year-old Reeves did not leave their bedrooms while organising the attack for the Wagner group, representing the Russian government.
The group selected the warehouse because it was being used to supply humanitarian aid and StarLink satellite equipment to Ukraine.
When the same Ukrainian company was subjected to an arson attack ten days afterward in Madrid, detectives from the Met’s counter-terrorism command took over the probe.
Proof and Additional Schemes
When Earl was arrested, police analysis of his mobile phone uncovered he had videos of the storage facility blaze being initiated and was in communication with the Wagner organization on Telegram, via an account with the handles ‘Privet Bot’ and ‘Lucky Strike alias’.
Some of the communications indicated that preliminary surveillance for further “missions”, involving arson attacks at a restaurant and wine shop in Mayfair district owned by the Russian dissident Evgeny Chichvarkin had already taken place. The employment of explosive devices to harm structures was also deliberated.
Detectives found that Earl was also considering the possibility of kidnapping the dissident Chichvarkin and “exiling him back to Russia to confront imprisonment”.
The individual involved in narcotics from Elmesthorpe, Leicestershire had talked about another potential attack in the Czech Republic.
In a residence inspection, police located a Russian flag, more than £20,000 in cash and cocaine hydrochloride with a market value of approximately thirty-four thousand pounds.
Motivations and Judicial Remarks
The court heard he was a participant in multiple pro-Russian propaganda channels and was motivated by “simple and ugly greed”.
“This case is about the attempts by the Russian government to acquire harmful worldwide sway using online platforms to enlist saboteurs vast distances from Moscow.”
She found the arson attack had a “terrorist connection” irrespective of if the perpetrators were aware of it. The Wagner group is banned by the British authorities as a terrorist organisation.
