🔗 Share this article

Six Britons acting for Russia’s Wagner group have been sentenced to prison for setting fire to a located in London storage unit that was storing humanitarian aid destined for Ukraine.

Court Rulings and Involvement

While delivering the sentences, the presiding judge at the Old Bailey remarked that they had planned a “series of terrorist and sabotage acts” to benefit the Russian government.

The individual named Dylan Earl was given a seventeen-year prison sentence with an extra six-year period on supervised release due to his “leading role”. Another defendant, Jake Reeves, from Croydon in south London, was given twelve years in prison with one year on supervised release. Their admitted crimes resulted in them being the initial persons to be convicted under the National Security Act 2023.

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

Ashton Evans individual involved in drug trafficking hailing from Newport, Gwent, was sentenced to nine years imprisonment with an extra year on extended licence after being found guilty of failing to disclose details regarding terrorist acts relating to a separate scheme in the Mayfair area.

Incident Specifics

The arson attack on a warehouse in Leyton, 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 organising the attack for the Wagner mercenary organization, acting on behalf of the Russian government.

The individuals involved targeted the warehouse because it was being used to supply humanitarian aid and StarLink satellite equipment to Ukraine.

When the same Ukrainian company was subjected to an arson attack 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 taken into custody, police analysis of his mobile phone uncovered he had videos of the warehouse fire being initiated and was in contact with the Wagner group on Telegram, via an account with the handles ‘Privet Bot’ and ‘Lucky Strike’.

Some of the communications indicated that reconnaissance for additional operations, involving fire-related incidents at a restaurant and wine shop in Mayfair district belonging to the Russian dissident Evgeny Chichvarkin had already taken place. The employment of explosive devices to damage buildings was also deliberated.

Investigators discovered that the defendant Earl was also raising 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 talked about an additional planned incident in the Czech nation.

In a residence inspection, law enforcement found a flag of Russia, over twenty thousand pounds in currency and cocaine with a market value of about £34,000.

Motivations and Judicial Remarks

The court heard he was a participant in numerous pro-Russian propaganda channels and was motivated by “plain and severe avarice”.

“This legal matter concerns the attempts by the Russian government to acquire harmful worldwide sway using online platforms to recruit disruptors vast distances from Moscow.”

She found the arson attack had a “link to terrorism” irrespective of if the perpetrators were aware of it. The Wagner group is proscribed by the British authorities as a terrorist organisation.