Six Britons working on behalf of the Wagner mercenary group linked to Russia have been sentenced to prison for setting fire to a London-based storage unit that was holding humanitarian aid destined 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” to benefit the Russian state.
Dylan Earl was given a seventeen-year jail term with an extra six-year period on extended licence due to his “leading role”. Jake Reeves, a resident of Croydon, South London, was sentenced to 12 years in jail with one year on extended licence. Their admitted crimes made them the initial persons to be convicted under the 2023 National Security Act.
Jakeem Rose, aged 23, also from Croydon, was sentenced to a term of eight years and ten months. Nii Mensah, 23, from Thornton Heath, south London, was sentenced to nine years and Ugnius Asmena, who was without a fixed address, was handed seven years in prison. The trio were each convicted of serious fire-setting and given 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 supervised release after being convicted of withholding information about terrorist acts relating to another plot in Mayfair.
Incident Specifics
The arson attack on a warehouse in Leyton, east London put 60 firefighters at risk and caused £1m in damage in March last year.
The court heard that the 21-year-old Earl and the 24-year-old Reeves did not leave their bedrooms while coordinating the incident for the Wagner mercenary organization, representing the Russian government.
The group targeted the warehouse because it was being used to supply emergency relief and satellite communication gear to Ukraine.
When the same Ukrainian company was hit by an intentional fire ten days afterward in the Spanish capital, investigators from the Metropolitan Police's anti-terror unit took over the investigation.
Evidence and Further Plans
When Earl was arrested, police analysis of his cellphone revealed he had videos of the warehouse fire being started and was in communication with the Wagner organization on the Telegram messaging app, via an user profile with the handles ‘Privet Bot’ and ‘Lucky Strike’.
Some of the communications showed that preliminary surveillance for further “missions”, involving fire-related incidents at a dining establishment and wine shop in Mayfair owned by the Russian opposition figure Evgeny Chichvarkin had already taken place. The use of explosives to harm structures was also deliberated.
Investigators discovered that Earl was also raising the potential abduction of Chichvarkin and “sending him back to Russia to confront imprisonment”.
The drug dealer from Elmesthorpe, Leicestershire had discussed another potential attack in the Czech Republic.
In a residence inspection, law enforcement located a Russian flag, more than £20,000 in cash and cocaine with a market value of approximately thirty-four thousand pounds.
Motivations and Judicial Remarks
The court heard he was a member of multiple pro-Russian propaganda channels and was motivated by “plain and severe avarice”.
“This legal matter concerns the efforts of the Russian Federation to gain pernicious global influence using social media to enlist saboteurs vast distances from Moscow.”
She determined the fire incident had a “terrorist connection” regardless of whether the individuals responsible knew it. The Wagner organization is proscribed by the British authorities as a terrorist group.
