A group of six individuals from Britain acting for Russia’s Wagner group have been sentenced to prison for igniting a London-based storage unit that was storing humanitarian aid intended for Ukraine.
Sentencing and Roles
Sentencing the men, the judge at the Old Bailey remarked that they had orchestrated a “campaign of terrorism and sabotage” in the interests of the Russian government.
Dylan Earl received a seventeen-year jail term with an additional six years on supervised release due to his “leading role”. Another defendant, Jake Reeves, a resident of Croydon, South London, was sentenced to twelve years in jail with an additional year on extended licence. Their admitted crimes made them the initial persons to be found guilty under the National Security Act 2023.
Jakeem Rose, aged 23, also from Croydon, was jailed for a term of eight years and ten months. Nii Mensah, a Thornton Heath, South London local, was given nine years imprisonment and Ugnius Asmena, 21, who was without a fixed address, was handed seven years. The trio were each found guilty of aggravated arson and given a additional year on extended licence by the court.
Ashton Evans, a 20-year-old individual involved in drug trafficking from Newport in Gwent, was jailed for nine years imprisonment with an extra year on supervised release after being convicted of failing to disclose information about terrorist acts connected to a separate scheme in the Mayfair area.
Incident Specifics
The arson attack on a Leyton-based storage facility in East London put 60 firefighters at risk and resulted in £1m in damage in March last year.
The court heard that Earl, 21 and Reeves, 24 remained in their residences while organising the attack for the Wagner group, acting on behalf of the Russian government.
The group targeted the storage facility because it was being used to supply emergency relief and satellite communication gear to Ukraine.
When the identical Ukrainian firm was hit by an intentional fire 10 days later in Madrid, detectives from the Met’s counter-terrorism command took over the investigation.
Evidence and Further Plans
When Earl was arrested, law enforcement examination of his cellphone uncovered he had videos of the storage facility blaze being started and was in communication with the Wagner organization on Telegram, via an account with the handles ‘Privet Bot account’ and ‘Lucky Strike alias’.
Some of the messages showed that preliminary surveillance for further “missions”, involving fire-related incidents at a restaurant and wine shop in Mayfair district belonging to the Russian dissident Evgeny Chichvarkin had already been carried out. The employment of explosive devices to harm structures was also discussed.
Investigators discovered that Earl was also raising the potential abduction of the dissident Chichvarkin and “sending him back to Russia to face prison”.
The drug dealer from Elmesthorpe in Leicestershire had discussed another potential attack 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 market value of about £34,000.
Driving Factors and Court Comments
The court heard he was a member of numerous pro-Russian propaganda channels and was driven by “simple and ugly greed”.
“This legal matter concerns the attempts by the Russian government to gain pernicious global influence using online platforms to recruit disruptors vast distances from Moscow.”
She found the fire incident had a “terrorist connection” regardless of whether the individuals responsible were aware of it. The Wagner group is banned by the UK government as a terrorist organisation.
