Six Britons acting for Russia’s Wagner group have been sentenced to prison for setting fire to a located in London storage unit that was storing relief supplies 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” in the interests of the Russian government.
The individual named Dylan Earl was given a seventeen-year prison sentence with an extra six-year period on supervised release due to his “primary involvement”. Jake Reeves, from Croydon in south London, was sentenced to 12 years in jail 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, aged 23, also from Croydon, was sentenced to eight years and 10 months. Nii Mensah, 23, a Thornton Heath, South London local, was given nine years imprisonment and Ugnius Asmena, 21, who was homeless, was given seven years. These three individuals were each found guilty of aggravated arson and received a additional year on supervised release by the court.
Ashton Evans individual involved in drug trafficking hailing from Newport, Gwent, was sentenced to nine years imprisonment plus a further year on extended licence after being convicted of withholding information about acts of terrorism connected to a separate scheme in Mayfair.
Details of the Attack
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 Reeves, 24 did not leave their bedrooms while coordinating the incident for the Wagner mercenary organization, acting on behalf of the Russian Federation.
The individuals involved targeted the warehouse 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 10 days later in Madrid, investigators from the Metropolitan Police's anti-terror unit took over the investigation.
Proof and Additional Schemes
When Earl was arrested, police analysis of his mobile phone revealed he had recordings of the warehouse fire being started and was in communication with the Wagner organization on the Telegram messaging app, via an user profile with the handles ‘Privet Bot’ and ‘Lucky Strike’.
Some of the messages indicated that preliminary surveillance for further “missions”, involving fire-related incidents at a restaurant and wine store in Mayfair belonging to the Russian dissident Evgeny Chichvarkin had already been carried out. The use of explosives to damage buildings was also deliberated.
Detectives discovered that Earl was also considering the possibility of kidnapping the dissident Chichvarkin and “sending him back to Russia to confront imprisonment”.
The individual involved in narcotics from Elmesthorpe in Leicestershire had talked about an additional planned incident in the Czech Republic.
In a search of his home, law enforcement located a Russian flag, more than £20,000 in cash and cocaine with a street value of about £34,000.
Motivations and Judicial Remarks
The court heard he was a member of multiple channels promoting Russian propaganda and was driven by “plain and severe avarice”.
“This case is about the efforts of the Russian Federation to acquire harmful worldwide sway using social media to enlist saboteurs vast distances from Moscow.”
She determined the fire incident had a “link to terrorism” regardless of whether the individuals responsible were aware of it. The Wagner organization is proscribed by the UK government as a terrorist organisation.
