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 holding humanitarian aid intended for Ukraine.
Sentencing and Roles
While delivering the sentences, the presiding judge at the Old Bailey remarked that they had orchestrated a “series of terrorist and sabotage acts” to benefit the Russian state.
Dylan Earl was given a seventeen-year prison sentence with an extra six-year period on supervised release due to his “leading role”. Jake Reeves, a resident of Croydon, South London, was sentenced to 12 years in jail with an additional year on supervised release. The offences they admitted resulted in them being the first individuals to be convicted under the 2023 National Security Act.
Jakeem Rose, also from Croydon, was sentenced to eight years and 10 months. Nii Mensah, a Thornton Heath, South London local, was sentenced to nine years and Ugnius Asmena, who was without a fixed address, was given seven years in prison. These three individuals were each found guilty 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 information about terrorist acts connected to a separate scheme in Mayfair.
Details of the Attack
The deliberate fire 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 proceedings revealed 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 utilized for providing emergency relief and satellite communication gear to Ukraine.
When the identical Ukrainian firm was hit by an arson attack ten days afterward in Madrid, detectives from the Met’s counter-terrorism command assumed control of the investigation.
Evidence and Further Plans
When Earl was arrested, law enforcement examination of his mobile phone revealed he had recordings of the warehouse fire being initiated and was in communication with the Wagner organization on Telegram, via an account with the usernames ‘Privet Bot’ and ‘Lucky Strike’.
Some of the communications showed that preliminary surveillance for further “missions”, involving arson attacks at a restaurant and wine shop in Mayfair district belonging to the Russian opposition figure Evgeny Chichvarkin had already taken place. The employment of explosive devices to damage buildings was also deliberated.
Detectives found that the defendant Earl was also considering the possibility of kidnapping the dissident Chichvarkin and “sending him back to Russia to confront imprisonment”.
The drug dealer from Elmesthorpe in Leicestershire had discussed another potential attack in the Czech Republic.
In a search of his home, police located a flag of Russia, more than £20,000 in cash and cocaine with a street value of about £34,000.
Driving Factors and Court Comments
The court heard 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 online platforms to enlist saboteurs far from the Russian capital.”
She found the arson attack had a “terrorist connection” irrespective of if the perpetrators knew it. The Wagner group is proscribed by the British authorities as a terrorist group.
