🔗 Share this article

Six Britons acting for Russia’s Wagner group have been sentenced to prison for igniting a located in London warehouse that was storing relief supplies intended for Ukraine.

Court Rulings and Involvement

Sentencing the men, the presiding judge at the Old Bailey remarked that they had orchestrated a “series of terrorist and sabotage acts” in the interests of the Russian state.

The individual named Dylan Earl was given a 17-year jail term with an additional six years on extended licence due to his “leading role”. Jake Reeves, a resident of Croydon, South London, was sentenced to twelve years in jail with one year on supervised release. Their admitted crimes made them the first individuals to be convicted under the 2023 National Security Act.

Jakeem Rose, aged 23, also a Croydon resident, was sentenced to eight years and 10 months. Nii Mensah, from Thornton Heath, south London, was sentenced to nine years imprisonment and Ugnius Asmena, 21, who was without a fixed address, was handed seven years in prison. The trio were each convicted of aggravated arson and received a further year on supervised release by the court.

Ashton Evans, a 20-year-old drug dealer from Newport in Gwent, was sentenced to nine years imprisonment plus a further year on extended licence after being found guilty of withholding information about acts of terrorism relating to a separate scheme in the Mayfair area.

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 of the previous 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 group, acting on behalf of the Russian Federation.

The individuals involved selected the storage facility because it was being utilized for providing emergency relief and satellite communication gear to Ukraine.

When the same Ukrainian company was subjected to an intentional fire ten days afterward in Madrid, detectives from the Met’s counter-terrorism command took over the probe.

Evidence and Further Plans

When Earl was arrested, police analysis of his cellphone uncovered he had videos of the warehouse fire being initiated and was in contact with the Wagner organization on Telegram, via an user profile with the usernames ‘Privet Bot account’ and ‘Lucky Strike alias’.

Some of the messages showed that preliminary surveillance for additional operations, 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 employment of explosive devices to harm structures was also deliberated.

Detectives found that the defendant Earl was also considering the potential abduction of the dissident Chichvarkin and “exiling him back to Russia to face prison”.

The drug dealer from Elmesthorpe, Leicestershire had talked about another potential attack in the Czech Republic.

In a search of his home, police located a Russian flag, over twenty thousand pounds in currency and cocaine with a street value of about £34,000.

Motivations and Judicial Remarks

The court heard he was a member of numerous channels promoting Russian propaganda and was motivated by “plain and severe avarice”.

“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” regardless of whether the individuals responsible knew it. The Wagner group is proscribed by the British authorities as a terrorist group.