A group of six individuals from Britain working on behalf of Russia’s Wagner group have been handed jail terms for setting fire to a London-based storage unit that was holding relief supplies destined for Ukraine.
Sentencing and Roles
While delivering the sentences, the judge at the central criminal court stated that they had planned a “campaign of terrorism and sabotage” in the interests of the Russian government.
Dylan Earl received a 17-year prison sentence with an additional six years on extended licence due to his “leading role”. Another defendant, Jake Reeves, a resident of Croydon, South London, was given 12 years in prison with one year on supervised release. The offences they admitted resulted in them being the first individuals to be convicted under the 2023 National Security Act.
Jakeem Rose, aged 23, also a Croydon resident, was jailed for a term of eight years and ten months. Nii Mensah, from Thornton Heath, south London, was sentenced to nine years imprisonment and Ugnius Asmena, who was homeless, was handed seven years. The trio were each found guilty of aggravated arson and given a additional year on supervised release by the judge.
Ashton Evans, a 20-year-old individual involved in drug trafficking from Newport in Gwent, was jailed for nine years imprisonment plus a further year on supervised release after being found guilty of withholding information about acts of terrorism connected to a separate scheme in Mayfair.
Details of the Attack
The arson attack 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 Earl, 21 and Reeves, 24 remained in their residences while coordinating the incident for the Wagner mercenary organization, representing the Russian Federation.
The group selected the warehouse because it was being utilized for providing humanitarian aid and satellite communication gear 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 investigation.
Evidence and Further Plans
When Earl was taken into custody, police analysis of his cellphone revealed he had recordings of the warehouse fire being started and was in contact with the Wagner group on the Telegram messaging app, via an account with the usernames ‘Privet Bot account’ and ‘Lucky Strike alias’.
Some of the messages showed that reconnaissance for further “missions”, involving fire-related incidents at a restaurant and wine shop in Mayfair belonging to the Russian opposition figure Evgeny Chichvarkin had already taken place. The use of explosives to damage buildings 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 face prison”.
The drug dealer from Elmesthorpe in Leicestershire had talked about another potential attack in the Czech Republic.
In a residence inspection, police found a Russian flag, over twenty thousand pounds in currency and cocaine hydrochloride with a market value of approximately thirty-four thousand pounds.
Motivations and Judicial Remarks
The court heard he was a member of multiple channels promoting Russian propaganda and was driven by “simple and ugly greed”.
“This case is about the attempts by the Russian government to gain pernicious global influence using social media to enlist saboteurs far from the Russian capital.”
She found the arson attack had a “link to terrorism” regardless of whether the individuals responsible were aware of it. The Wagner group is banned by the British authorities as a terrorist group.
