A group of six individuals from Britain acting for Russia’s Wagner group have been sentenced to prison for igniting a located in London storage unit that was storing humanitarian aid destined for Ukraine.
Sentencing and Roles
Sentencing the men, the presiding judge at the central criminal court remarked that they had planned a “campaign of terrorism and sabotage” to benefit the Russian state.
Dylan Earl received a seventeen-year jail term with an additional six years on extended licence due to his “leading role”. Jake Reeves, from Croydon in south London, was sentenced to 12 years in prison with an additional year on supervised release. The offences they admitted made them the initial persons 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, a Thornton Heath, South London local, was sentenced to nine years imprisonment and Ugnius Asmena, who was without a fixed address, was handed seven years in prison. The trio were each found guilty of serious fire-setting and given a further year on supervised release by the court.
Ashton Evans drug dealer hailing from Newport, Gwent, was sentenced to nine years with an extra year on supervised release after being found guilty of failing to disclose details regarding acts of terrorism relating to a separate scheme in the Mayfair area.
Incident Specifics
The deliberate fire on a Leyton-based storage facility in East London endangered sixty fire service personnel and resulted in £1m in damage in March last year.
The court heard that Earl, 21 and the 24-year-old Reeves did not leave their bedrooms while coordinating the incident for the Wagner group, acting on behalf of the Russian government.
The individuals involved selected the warehouse because it was being used to supply emergency relief and StarLink satellite equipment to Ukraine.
When the same Ukrainian company was hit by an arson attack ten days afterward in the Spanish capital, 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 uncovered he had videos of the warehouse fire being started and was in contact with the Wagner group on Telegram, via an user profile with the usernames ‘Privet Bot account’ and ‘Lucky Strike’.
Some of the messages indicated that preliminary surveillance for further “missions”, involving fire-related incidents at a restaurant and wine shop in Mayfair belonging to the Russian dissident Evgeny Chichvarkin had already taken place. The use of explosives to damage buildings was also discussed.
Detectives found that Earl was also raising the possibility of kidnapping the dissident Chichvarkin and “sending 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, law enforcement found 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 participant in numerous channels promoting Russian propaganda 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 recruit disruptors far from the Russian capital.”
She determined the arson attack had a “terrorist connection” regardless of whether the perpetrators were aware of it. The Wagner organization is banned by the UK government as a terrorist organisation.
