A group of six individuals from Britain working on behalf of the Wagner mercenary group linked to Russia have been sentenced to prison for setting fire to a London-based warehouse that was storing relief supplies destined for Ukraine.
Sentencing and Roles
While delivering the sentences, the presiding judge at the central criminal court remarked that they had planned a “series of terrorist and sabotage acts” to benefit the Russian government.
Dylan Earl received a seventeen-year prison sentence with an additional six years on supervised release due to his “leading role”. Another defendant, Jake Reeves, from Croydon in south London, was given 12 years in jail with one year on extended licence. The offences they admitted resulted in them being the first individuals to be found guilty under the 2023 National Security Act.
Jakeem Rose, aged 23, also from Croydon, was jailed for a term of eight years and ten months. Nii Mensah, 23, from Thornton Heath, south London, was given nine years imprisonment and Ugnius Asmena, who was homeless, was handed seven years. These three individuals were each convicted of serious fire-setting and received a further year on supervised release by the court.
Ashton Evans, a 20-year-old drug dealer hailing from Newport, Gwent, was jailed for nine years plus a further year on supervised release after being convicted of withholding details regarding acts of terrorism relating to a separate scheme in Mayfair.
Details of the Attack
The deliberate fire 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 Earl, 21 and the 24-year-old Reeves did not leave their bedrooms while coordinating the incident for the Wagner mercenary organization, acting on behalf of the Russian Federation.
The individuals involved selected the storage facility because it was being used to supply humanitarian aid and StarLink satellite equipment to Ukraine.
When the identical Ukrainian firm was hit by an intentional fire ten days afterward in the Spanish capital, detectives from the Met’s counter-terrorism command took over the investigation.
Evidence and Further Plans
When Earl was arrested, police analysis of his mobile phone revealed he had videos of the warehouse fire being started and was in contact 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 additional operations, involving fire-related incidents at a restaurant and wine shop in Mayfair district owned by the Russian opposition figure Evgeny Chichvarkin had already been carried out. The use of explosives to damage buildings was also deliberated.
Investigators found that the defendant Earl was also raising the possibility of kidnapping Chichvarkin and “exiling him back to Russia to face prison”.
The drug dealer from Elmesthorpe in Leicestershire had talked about another potential attack in the Czech Republic.
In a search of his home, law enforcement located a flag of Russia, over twenty thousand pounds in currency and cocaine with a street value of about £34,000.
Motivations and Judicial Remarks
The proceedings revealed he was a member of multiple channels promoting Russian propaganda and was motivated by “simple and ugly greed”.
“This case is about the efforts of the Russian Federation to gain pernicious global influence using social media to recruit disruptors far from the Russian capital.”
She found the fire incident had a “link to terrorism” irrespective of if the individuals responsible knew it. The Wagner organization is proscribed by the UK government as a terrorist group.
