Six Britons acting for the Wagner mercenary group linked to Russia have been sentenced to prison for setting fire to a London-based warehouse that was holding humanitarian aid intended for Ukraine.
Sentencing and Roles
Sentencing the men, the judge at the Old Bailey remarked that they had planned a “campaign of terrorism and sabotage” in the interests of the Russian state.
Dylan Earl received a seventeen-year prison sentence with an additional six years 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 extended licence. The offences they admitted resulted in them being the first individuals to be found guilty under the National Security Act 2023.
Jakeem Rose, also from Croydon, was jailed for a term of eight years and ten months. Nii Mensah, 23, a Thornton Heath, South London local, was given nine years and Ugnius Asmena, 21, who was homeless, was handed seven years. These three individuals were each convicted of serious fire-setting and received a further year on extended licence by the judge.
Ashton Evans, a 20-year-old drug dealer hailing from Newport, Gwent, was sentenced to nine years with an extra year on extended licence after being found guilty of failing to disclose information about terrorist acts connected to a separate scheme in the Mayfair area.
Details of the Attack
The arson attack on a Leyton-based storage facility in East London put 60 firefighters at risk and caused one million pounds worth of destruction in March last year.
The proceedings revealed that the 21-year-old Earl and the 24-year-old Reeves remained in their residences while coordinating the incident for the Wagner group, representing the Russian government.
The individuals involved selected the warehouse because it was being used to supply humanitarian aid and StarLink satellite equipment to Ukraine.
When the same Ukrainian company was subjected to an arson attack ten days afterward in Madrid, investigators from the Metropolitan Police's anti-terror unit took over the probe.
Proof and Additional Schemes
When Earl was taken into custody, law enforcement examination of his cellphone uncovered he had videos of the warehouse fire being started and was in communication with the Wagner organization on Telegram, via an user profile with the usernames ‘Privet Bot account’ and ‘Lucky Strike’.
Some of the communications indicated that preliminary surveillance for further “missions”, involving arson attacks at a restaurant and wine store in Mayfair district owned by the Russian opposition figure Evgeny Chichvarkin had already taken place. The use of explosives to harm structures was also deliberated.
Investigators found that the defendant Earl was also raising the potential abduction of Chichvarkin and “exiling him back to Russia to confront imprisonment”.
The drug dealer from Elmesthorpe, Leicestershire had talked about 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 hydrochloride with a street value of about £34,000.
Driving Factors and Court Comments
The proceedings revealed he was a participant in multiple pro-Russian propaganda channels and was motivated by “simple and ugly greed”.
“This legal matter concerns the efforts of the Russian Federation to gain pernicious global influence using social media to enlist saboteurs far from the Russian capital.”
She found the arson attack had a “link to terrorism” regardless of whether the perpetrators knew it. The Wagner group is banned by the UK government as a terrorist group.
