Six Britons working on behalf of Russia’s Wagner group have been sentenced to prison for igniting a located in London storage unit that was storing humanitarian aid intended for Ukraine.
Sentencing and Roles
While delivering the sentences, the presiding judge at the central criminal court remarked that they had planned a “campaign of terrorism and sabotage” to benefit the Russian government.
Dylan Earl received a 17-year jail term with an additional six years 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 extended licence. The offences they admitted made them the initial persons to be convicted under the National Security Act 2023.
Jakeem Rose, aged 23, also a Croydon resident, was sentenced to eight years and 10 months. Nii Mensah, 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. These three individuals were each found guilty of serious fire-setting and given a further year on extended licence by the judge.
Ashton Evans individual involved in drug trafficking hailing from Newport, Gwent, was sentenced to nine years imprisonment plus a further year on supervised release after being convicted of failing to disclose information about acts of terrorism relating to another plot in the Mayfair area.
Incident Specifics
The arson attack on a Leyton-based storage facility in East London endangered sixty fire service personnel and resulted in one million pounds worth of destruction in March of the previous year.
The court heard that the 21-year-old Earl and the 24-year-old Reeves remained in their residences while organising the attack for the Wagner group, representing the Russian government.
The group selected the warehouse because it was being used to supply emergency relief and StarLink satellite equipment to Ukraine.
When the same Ukrainian company was subjected to an arson attack 10 days later in the Spanish capital, detectives from the Met’s counter-terrorism command assumed control of the investigation.
Evidence and Further Plans
When Earl was arrested, police analysis of his mobile phone 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 indicated that preliminary surveillance for additional operations, involving fire-related incidents at a dining establishment and wine shop in Mayfair district belonging to the Russian dissident Evgeny Chichvarkin had already taken place. The employment of explosive devices to harm structures was also deliberated.
Detectives found that the defendant 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, police found a Russian flag, over twenty thousand pounds in currency and cocaine hydrochloride with a market value of about £34,000.
Motivations and Judicial Remarks
The court heard he was a member of numerous pro-Russian propaganda channels and was driven by “simple and ugly greed”.
“This case is about the attempts by the Russian government to gain pernicious global influence using social media to recruit disruptors vast distances from Moscow.”
She determined the arson attack had a “terrorist connection” regardless of whether the perpetrators knew it. The Wagner organization is proscribed by the UK government as a terrorist organisation.
