Six Britons acting for the Wagner mercenary group linked to Russia have been sentenced to prison for setting fire to a located in London storage unit that was storing relief supplies destined for Ukraine.
Sentencing and Roles
Sentencing the men, the presiding judge at the central criminal court remarked that they had orchestrated a “series of terrorist and sabotage acts” to benefit the Russian state.
Dylan Earl was given a seventeen-year prison sentence with an additional six years on extended licence due to his “primary involvement”. Another defendant, Jake Reeves, a resident of Croydon, South London, was sentenced to 12 years in jail with one year on supervised release. The offences they admitted made them the initial persons to be convicted under the 2023 National Security Act.
Jakeem Rose, also a Croydon resident, was jailed for 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 given seven years in prison. The trio were each found guilty of serious fire-setting and given a further year on supervised release by the judge.
Ashton Evans drug dealer from Newport in Gwent, was sentenced to nine years with an extra year on supervised release after being found guilty of withholding information about acts of terrorism relating to another plot in the Mayfair area.
Details of the Attack
The arson attack on a Leyton-based storage facility in East London endangered sixty fire service personnel and caused one million pounds worth of destruction in March of the previous year.
The court heard that the 21-year-old Earl and the 24-year-old Reeves did not leave their bedrooms while organising the attack for the Wagner mercenary organization, acting on behalf of the Russian Federation.
The individuals involved selected the storage facility because it was being used to supply emergency relief and satellite communication gear to Ukraine.
When the same Ukrainian company was hit by an arson attack 10 days later 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 revealed he had videos of the storage facility blaze being initiated and was in contact with the Wagner group on Telegram, via an user profile with the usernames ‘Privet Bot’ and ‘Lucky Strike’.
Some of the messages indicated that preliminary surveillance for further “missions”, involving fire-related incidents at a restaurant and wine shop in Mayfair district owned by the Russian opposition figure Evgeny Chichvarkin had already been carried out. The employment of explosive devices to damage buildings was also deliberated.
Investigators discovered that Earl was also considering the possibility of kidnapping the dissident Chichvarkin and “exiling him back to Russia to confront imprisonment”.
The drug dealer from Elmesthorpe in Leicestershire had discussed another potential attack in the Czech Republic.
In a search of his home, law enforcement located a Russian flag, over twenty thousand pounds in currency and cocaine with a market value of approximately thirty-four thousand pounds.
Motivations and Judicial Remarks
The proceedings revealed he was a member of multiple channels promoting Russian propaganda and was driven by “plain and severe avarice”.
“This legal matter concerns the efforts of the Russian Federation to acquire harmful worldwide sway using online platforms to recruit disruptors vast distances from Moscow.”
She determined the arson attack had a “terrorist connection” irrespective of if the perpetrators knew it. The Wagner group is banned by the UK government as a terrorist group.
