A group of six individuals from Britain working on behalf of the Wagner mercenary group linked to Russia 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
While delivering the sentences, the judge at the Old Bailey remarked that they had planned a “series of terrorist and sabotage acts” in the interests of the Russian government.
Dylan Earl received a seventeen-year prison sentence with an additional six years on supervised release due to his “primary involvement”. Another defendant, Jake Reeves, from Croydon in south London, was sentenced to 12 years in jail with an additional year on extended licence. Their admitted crimes made them the first individuals to be convicted under the National Security Act 2023.
Jakeem Rose, aged 23, also a Croydon resident, was sentenced to a term of eight years and ten months. Nii Mensah, 23, a Thornton Heath, South London local, was given nine years imprisonment and Ugnius Asmena, 21, who was without a fixed address, was handed seven years in prison. The trio were each convicted of aggravated arson and given a further year on supervised release by the court.
Ashton Evans drug dealer from Newport in Gwent, was jailed for nine years imprisonment with an extra year on supervised release after being convicted of failing to disclose details regarding acts of terrorism connected to a separate scheme in Mayfair.
Details of the Attack
The deliberate fire on a Leyton-based storage facility in East London endangered sixty fire service personnel and caused £1m in damage in March of the previous year.
The proceedings revealed that Earl, 21 and the 24-year-old Reeves did not leave their bedrooms while coordinating the incident for the Wagner mercenary organization, representing the Russian government.
The individuals involved selected 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 ten days afterward in the Spanish capital, detectives from the Met’s counter-terrorism command took over the probe.
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 organization on the Telegram messaging app, via an account with the handles ‘Privet Bot account’ and ‘Lucky Strike alias’.
Some of the messages showed that preliminary surveillance for further “missions”, involving fire-related incidents at a dining establishment and wine shop in Mayfair belonging to the Russian dissident Evgeny Chichvarkin had already been carried out. The use of explosives to harm structures was also deliberated.
Detectives discovered that the defendant Earl was also raising the possibility of kidnapping the dissident Chichvarkin and “exiling him back to Russia to confront imprisonment”.
The individual involved in narcotics from Elmesthorpe, Leicestershire had discussed another potential attack in the Czech Republic.
In a search of his home, police found a Russian flag, more than £20,000 in cash and cocaine with a market value of approximately thirty-four thousand pounds.
Driving Factors and Court Comments
The court heard he was a participant in multiple channels promoting Russian propaganda and was driven 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 arson attack had a “terrorist connection” irrespective of if the individuals responsible knew it. The Wagner group is banned by the British authorities as a terrorist organisation.
