Six Britons acting for Russia’s Wagner group have been sentenced to prison for igniting a located in London storage unit that was holding relief supplies destined for Ukraine.
Sentencing and Roles
Sentencing the men, 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 was given a 17-year jail term with an additional six years on supervised release due to his “leading role”. Another defendant, Jake Reeves, from Croydon in south London, was given 12 years in jail with an additional year on extended licence. The offences they admitted made them the first individuals to be convicted under the 2023 National Security Act.
Jakeem Rose, aged 23, also a Croydon resident, was jailed for eight years and 10 months. Nii Mensah, from Thornton Heath, south London, was given nine years and Ugnius Asmena, 21, who was homeless, was given seven years. These three individuals were each found guilty of serious fire-setting and given a further year on extended licence by the judge.
Ashton Evans, a 20-year-old drug dealer hailing from Newport, Gwent, was jailed for nine years with an extra year on supervised release after being found guilty of withholding details regarding terrorist acts relating 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 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 selected the warehouse because it was being used to supply emergency relief and satellite communication gear to Ukraine.
When the same Ukrainian company was hit by an intentional fire 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 recordings of the storage facility blaze being started and was in contact with the Wagner group on the Telegram messaging app, via an user profile with the usernames ‘Privet Bot’ and ‘Lucky Strike alias’.
Some of the messages indicated 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 been carried out. The employment of explosive devices to damage buildings was also discussed.
Detectives discovered that the defendant Earl was also raising the possibility of kidnapping the dissident Chichvarkin and “exiling him back to Russia to face prison”.
The drug dealer from Elmesthorpe in Leicestershire had discussed an additional planned incident in the Czech nation.
In a search of his home, police found a flag of Russia, over twenty thousand pounds in currency and cocaine with a street value of about £34,000.
Driving Factors and Court Comments
The proceedings revealed he was a participant in multiple channels promoting Russian propaganda and was motivated by “simple and ugly greed”.
“This case is about the efforts of the Russian Federation to gain pernicious global influence using social media to enlist saboteurs far from the Russian capital.”
She found the fire incident had a “terrorist connection” regardless of whether the perpetrators were aware of it. The Wagner group is banned by the UK government as a terrorist organisation.
