Six Britons acting for Russia’s Wagner group have been sentenced to prison for igniting a London-based storage unit that was storing relief supplies intended for Ukraine.
Sentencing and Roles
While delivering the sentences, the judge at the Old Bailey stated that they had orchestrated a “series of terrorist and sabotage acts” to benefit the Russian state.
Dylan Earl received a 17-year prison sentence with an additional six years on supervised release due to his “primary involvement”. Jake Reeves, from Croydon in south London, was given 12 years in jail with one year on extended licence. The offences they admitted made them the first individuals to be found guilty under the National Security Act 2023.
Jakeem Rose, also from Croydon, was sentenced to a term of eight years and ten months. Nii Mensah, from Thornton Heath, south London, was given nine years and Ugnius Asmena, who was homeless, was handed seven years in prison. The trio 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 extended licence after being found guilty of withholding details regarding acts of terrorism connected to a separate scheme in the Mayfair area.
Incident Specifics
The deliberate fire on a warehouse in Leyton, east London endangered sixty fire service personnel and resulted in £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 coordinating the incident for the Wagner group, representing the Russian Federation.
The group targeted the storage facility because it was being used to supply humanitarian aid and satellite communication gear to Ukraine.
When the same Ukrainian company was hit by an arson attack 10 days later in Madrid, investigators from the Metropolitan Police's anti-terror unit took over the investigation.
Evidence and Further Plans
When Earl was arrested, law enforcement examination 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 usernames ‘Privet Bot’ 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 district owned by the Russian dissident Evgeny Chichvarkin had already taken place. The use of explosives to damage buildings was also deliberated.
Detectives discovered that Earl was also considering the possibility of kidnapping 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 located a Russian flag, over twenty thousand pounds in currency and cocaine with a street value of approximately thirty-four thousand pounds.
Driving Factors and Court Comments
The proceedings revealed he was a member of multiple channels promoting Russian propaganda and was motivated by “plain and severe avarice”.
“This case is about the attempts by the Russian government to gain pernicious global influence using online platforms to recruit disruptors far from the Russian capital.”
She found the fire incident had a “link to terrorism” regardless of whether the perpetrators were aware of it. The Wagner group is banned by the UK government as a terrorist organisation.
