Six Britons acting for Russia’s Wagner group have been handed jail terms for igniting a located in London storage unit that was holding humanitarian aid destined for Ukraine.
Sentencing and Roles
Sentencing the men, the presiding judge at the Old Bailey remarked that they had planned a “campaign of terrorism and sabotage” to benefit the Russian government.
Dylan Earl was given a 17-year prison sentence with an additional six years on supervised release due to his “leading role”. Jake Reeves, from Croydon in south London, was given 12 years in prison with an additional year on extended licence. Their admitted crimes resulted in them being the first individuals to be convicted 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, a Thornton Heath, South London local, was given nine years and Ugnius Asmena, who was without a fixed address, was handed seven years. These three individuals were each convicted of aggravated arson and received a further year on extended licence by the judge.
Ashton Evans drug dealer hailing from Newport, Gwent, was jailed for nine years with an extra year on supervised release after being convicted of failing to disclose information about acts of terrorism connected to another plot in Mayfair.
Details of the Attack
The arson attack on a warehouse in Leyton, east London endangered sixty fire service personnel and resulted in £1m in damage in March last year.
The court heard that the 21-year-old Earl and Reeves, 24 did not leave their bedrooms while organising the attack for the Wagner group, acting on behalf of the Russian government.
The individuals involved selected the storage facility 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, detectives from the Met’s counter-terrorism command assumed control of the probe.
Proof and Additional Schemes
When Earl was arrested, police analysis of his mobile phone uncovered he had recordings of the warehouse fire being started and was in communication 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 indicated that reconnaissance for further “missions”, involving arson attacks at a restaurant and wine store in Mayfair district belonging to the Russian opposition figure 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 “sending him back to Russia to face prison”.
The individual involved in narcotics from Elmesthorpe in Leicestershire had talked about another potential attack in the Czech Republic.
In a search of his home, police located a Russian flag, over twenty thousand pounds in currency and cocaine with a market value of approximately thirty-four thousand pounds.
Driving Factors and Court Comments
The proceedings revealed he was a member of multiple 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 found the fire incident had a “link to terrorism” regardless of whether the individuals responsible knew it. The Wagner group is banned by the UK government as a terrorist organisation.
