Six Britons working on behalf of the Wagner mercenary group linked to Russia have been sentenced to prison for igniting a located in London warehouse that was holding relief supplies intended for Ukraine.
Court Rulings and Involvement
Sentencing the men, the judge at the central criminal court remarked that they had planned a “campaign of terrorism and sabotage” to benefit the Russian state.
Dylan Earl received a seventeen-year prison sentence with an additional six years on extended licence due to his “primary involvement”. Jake Reeves, from Croydon in south London, was given 12 years in prison with one year on supervised release. The offences they admitted resulted in them being the initial persons to be convicted under the 2023 National Security Act.
Jakeem Rose, also from Croydon, was sentenced to eight years and 10 months. Nii Mensah, 23, a Thornton Heath, South London local, was given nine years imprisonment and Ugnius Asmena, 21, who was without a fixed address, was given seven years in prison. These three individuals were each found guilty of aggravated arson and given a further year on supervised release by the judge.
Ashton Evans, a 20-year-old drug dealer from Newport in Gwent, was jailed for nine years with an extra year on supervised release after being found guilty of failing to disclose information about terrorist acts relating to a separate scheme in the Mayfair area.
Details of the Attack
The deliberate fire on a Leyton-based storage facility in East London endangered sixty fire service personnel and resulted in £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 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 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, police analysis of his mobile phone revealed he had videos of the warehouse fire being started and was in communication with the Wagner group on the Telegram messaging app, via an account with the handles ‘Privet Bot’ and ‘Lucky Strike alias’.
Some of the messages indicated that reconnaissance for additional operations, involving arson attacks at a dining establishment and wine store in Mayfair owned by the Russian opposition figure Evgeny Chichvarkin had already taken place. The employment of explosive devices to damage buildings was also deliberated.
Investigators found that Earl was also considering the potential abduction of the dissident Chichvarkin and “exiling him back to Russia to confront imprisonment”.
The individual involved in narcotics from Elmesthorpe in Leicestershire had discussed another potential attack in the Czech Republic.
In a search of his home, police found a flag of Russia, 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 participant in numerous channels promoting Russian propaganda and was motivated by “simple and ugly greed”.
“This case is about the attempts by the Russian government to acquire harmful worldwide sway using social media to enlist saboteurs vast distances from Moscow.”
She found the arson attack had a “link to terrorism” irrespective of if the perpetrators knew it. The Wagner group is banned by the UK government as a terrorist group.
