🔗 Share this article

Six Britons working on behalf of the Wagner mercenary group linked to Russia have been handed jail terms for setting fire to a London-based warehouse that was storing relief supplies destined for Ukraine.

Sentencing and Roles

While delivering the sentences, the presiding judge at the central criminal court remarked that they had planned a “campaign of terrorism and sabotage” to benefit the Russian government.

The individual named Dylan Earl was given a 17-year jail term with an additional six years on extended licence due to his “primary involvement”. Another defendant, Jake Reeves, a resident of Croydon, South London, was given twelve years in jail with one year on extended licence. Their admitted crimes resulted in them being the initial persons to be convicted under the 2023 National Security Act.

Jakeem Rose, aged 23, also from Croydon, was jailed for eight years and 10 months. Nii Mensah, 23, from Thornton Heath, south London, was given nine years imprisonment and Ugnius Asmena, 21, who was without a fixed address, was given seven years. The trio were each found guilty of serious fire-setting and given a additional year on supervised release by the court.

Ashton Evans, a 20-year-old individual involved in drug trafficking from Newport in Gwent, was sentenced to nine years plus a further year on supervised release after being convicted of failing to disclose details regarding acts of terrorism relating to another plot in Mayfair.

Details of the Attack

The arson attack on a Leyton-based storage facility in East London put 60 firefighters at risk and resulted in one million pounds worth of destruction 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, representing the Russian Federation.

The group targeted the storage facility because it was being utilized for providing 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, detectives from the Met’s counter-terrorism command took over the investigation.

Evidence and Further Plans

When Earl was arrested, police analysis of his cellphone uncovered he had recordings of the warehouse fire being started and was in contact with the Wagner group on the Telegram messaging app, via an user profile with the usernames ‘Privet Bot’ and ‘Lucky Strike’.

Some of the messages showed that reconnaissance for further “missions”, involving fire-related incidents at a restaurant and wine store in Mayfair district owned by the Russian dissident Evgeny Chichvarkin had already been carried out. The employment of explosive devices to damage buildings was also discussed.

Investigators discovered that the defendant Earl was also considering the possibility of kidnapping Chichvarkin and “sending him back to Russia to face prison”.

The individual involved in narcotics from Elmesthorpe in Leicestershire had talked about another potential attack in the Czech Republic.

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

Driving Factors and Court Comments

The court heard he was a participant in multiple pro-Russian propaganda channels and was driven by “simple and ugly greed”.

“This legal matter concerns the efforts of the Russian Federation to gain pernicious global influence using online platforms to recruit disruptors vast distances from Moscow.”

She found the fire incident had a “link to terrorism” regardless of whether the perpetrators were aware of it. The Wagner organization is proscribed by the UK government as a terrorist group.