Six Britons working on behalf of Russia’s Wagner group have been handed jail terms for setting fire to a London-based 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 extra six-year period on extended licence due to his “leading role”. Another defendant, Jake Reeves, a resident of Croydon, South London, was given twelve years in prison with one year on supervised release. The offences they admitted made them the first individuals to be found guilty under the 2023 National Security Act.
Jakeem Rose, also a Croydon resident, was jailed for a term of eight years and ten months. Nii Mensah, a Thornton Heath, South London local, was sentenced to nine years and Ugnius Asmena, 21, who was without a fixed address, was given seven years. These three individuals were each convicted of serious fire-setting and given a further year on extended licence by the judge.
Ashton Evans individual involved in drug trafficking from Newport in Gwent, was sentenced to nine years imprisonment with an extra year on supervised release after being found guilty of withholding details regarding terrorist acts relating to a separate scheme in Mayfair.
Incident Specifics
The deliberate fire 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 Earl, 21 and the 24-year-old Reeves remained in their residences while organising the attack for the Wagner group, representing the Russian government.
The individuals involved selected the warehouse because it was being used to supply humanitarian aid 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 assumed control of the investigation.
Evidence and Further Plans
When Earl was arrested, law enforcement examination of his cellphone uncovered he had videos of the storage facility blaze being initiated and was in communication with the Wagner organization on the Telegram messaging app, via an account with the handles ‘Privet Bot’ and ‘Lucky Strike alias’.
Some of the messages showed that reconnaissance for further “missions”, involving fire-related incidents at a dining establishment and wine shop in Mayfair owned by the Russian dissident Evgeny Chichvarkin had already taken place. The use of explosives to harm structures was also deliberated.
Detectives found that the defendant Earl was also considering the possibility of kidnapping Chichvarkin and “sending him back to Russia to face prison”.
The drug dealer from Elmesthorpe in Leicestershire had talked about an additional planned incident in the Czech nation.
In a search of his home, police found a Russian flag, over twenty thousand pounds in currency and cocaine hydrochloride with a street value of about £34,000.
Motivations and Judicial Remarks
The court heard he was a participant in 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 social media to enlist saboteurs vast distances from Moscow.”
She found the arson attack had a “link to terrorism” irrespective of if the perpetrators were aware of it. The Wagner organization is banned by the British authorities as a terrorist group.
