🔗 Share this article

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 intended for Ukraine.

Court Rulings and Involvement

While delivering the sentences, the judge at the central criminal court stated that they had planned a “series of terrorist and sabotage acts” in the interests of the Russian state.

Dylan Earl received a 17-year prison sentence with an extra six-year period on supervised release 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 initial persons to be found guilty under the 2023 National Security Act.

Jakeem Rose, aged 23, also a Croydon resident, was sentenced to eight years and 10 months. Nii Mensah, from Thornton Heath, south London, was given nine years and Ugnius Asmena, who was homeless, was handed seven years in prison. These three individuals were each found guilty of aggravated arson and received a further year on extended licence by the judge.

Ashton Evans, a 20-year-old drug dealer from Newport in Gwent, was jailed for nine years plus a further year on extended licence after being found guilty of withholding information about acts of terrorism relating 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 £1m in damage in March of the previous year.

The proceedings revealed that Earl, 21 and the 24-year-old Reeves remained in their residences while organising the attack for the Wagner mercenary organization, acting on behalf of the Russian government.

The group selected the warehouse because it was being utilized for providing emergency relief and StarLink satellite equipment to Ukraine.

When the identical Ukrainian firm was hit by an arson attack 10 days later in the Spanish capital, investigators from the Metropolitan Police's anti-terror unit assumed control of the probe.

Evidence and Further Plans

When Earl was taken into custody, law enforcement examination of his cellphone uncovered he had videos of the warehouse fire being started and was in contact with the Wagner organization on the Telegram messaging app, via an user profile with the handles ‘Privet Bot account’ and ‘Lucky Strike’.

Some of the communications showed that reconnaissance for further “missions”, involving arson attacks at a dining establishment and wine store in Mayfair district owned by the Russian opposition figure Evgeny Chichvarkin had already taken place. The use of explosives to harm structures was also deliberated.

Detectives discovered that Earl was also raising the potential abduction of 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 search of his home, law enforcement located a flag of Russia, over twenty thousand pounds in currency and cocaine with a street value of about £34,000.

Motivations and Judicial Remarks

The court heard he was a member of multiple channels promoting Russian propaganda and was driven by “plain and severe avarice”.

“This legal matter concerns the efforts of the Russian Federation 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 knew it. The Wagner organization is banned by the UK government as a terrorist organisation.