A group of six individuals from Britain acting for 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.
Court Rulings and Involvement
Sentencing the men, the presiding judge at the central criminal court stated that they had orchestrated a “campaign of terrorism and sabotage” in the interests of the Russian state.
Dylan Earl received a 17-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 twelve years in prison with an additional year on extended licence. 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 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 given seven years. These three individuals were each convicted of serious fire-setting and received a further year on extended licence by the judge.
Ashton Evans drug dealer from Newport in Gwent, was sentenced to nine years imprisonment plus a further year on extended licence after being convicted of withholding details regarding terrorist acts relating to another plot in the Mayfair area.
Incident Specifics
The deliberate fire on a warehouse in Leyton, east London put 60 firefighters at risk and caused £1m in damage in March last year.
The court heard that the 21-year-old Earl and the 24-year-old Reeves remained in their residences while coordinating the incident for the Wagner group, representing the Russian government.
The group selected the storage facility because it was being used to supply emergency relief and satellite communication gear 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 took over the investigation.
Proof and Additional Schemes
When Earl was arrested, police analysis of his mobile phone uncovered he had recordings of the storage facility blaze being initiated and was in contact with the Wagner group on Telegram, via an account with the handles ‘Privet Bot’ and ‘Lucky Strike alias’.
Some of the communications showed that preliminary surveillance for additional operations, involving fire-related incidents at a dining establishment and wine store in Mayfair belonging to the Russian dissident Evgeny Chichvarkin had already taken place. The employment of explosive devices to harm structures was also deliberated.
Investigators discovered that Earl was also raising the possibility of kidnapping Chichvarkin and “sending him back to Russia to face prison”.
The drug dealer from Elmesthorpe, Leicestershire had discussed another potential attack in the Czech nation.
In a search of his home, law enforcement found a flag of Russia, over twenty thousand pounds in currency and cocaine hydrochloride with a street value of about £34,000.
Motivations and Judicial Remarks
The proceedings revealed he was a member of multiple pro-Russian propaganda channels and was motivated by “plain and severe avarice”.
“This case is about the efforts of the Russian Federation to gain pernicious global influence using online platforms to recruit disruptors vast distances from Moscow.”
She found the arson attack had a “link to terrorism” irrespective of if the individuals responsible knew it. The Wagner group is banned by the UK government as a terrorist organisation.
