A group of six individuals from Britain acting for Russia’s Wagner group have been sentenced to prison for setting fire to a located in London storage unit that was holding humanitarian aid destined for Ukraine.
Sentencing and Roles
Sentencing the men, the presiding judge at the Old Bailey stated that they had planned a “campaign of terrorism and sabotage” in the interests of the Russian state.
Dylan Earl was given a 17-year jail term with an additional six years on supervised release due to his “leading role”. Another defendant, Jake Reeves, a resident of Croydon, South London, was sentenced to 12 years in prison with an additional year on supervised release. The offences they admitted made them the first individuals to be found guilty 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 homeless, 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 individual involved in drug trafficking hailing from Newport, Gwent, was jailed for nine years imprisonment plus a further year on supervised release after being found guilty of withholding information about acts of terrorism connected to another plot in Mayfair.
Details of the Attack
The arson attack on a warehouse in Leyton, east London endangered sixty fire service personnel and caused £1m in damage in March of the previous year.
The proceedings revealed that Earl, 21 and Reeves, 24 remained in their residences while coordinating the incident for the Wagner mercenary organization, representing the Russian government.
The individuals involved 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 Madrid, detectives from the Met’s counter-terrorism command took over the probe.
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 contact with the Wagner group on the Telegram messaging app, via an account with the usernames ‘Privet Bot’ and ‘Lucky Strike’.
Some of the messages showed that preliminary surveillance for additional operations, involving arson attacks at a dining establishment and wine store in Mayfair district owned by the Russian opposition figure Evgeny Chichvarkin had already taken place. The use of explosives to damage buildings was also deliberated.
Detectives found that Earl was also considering the possibility of kidnapping Chichvarkin and “exiling him back to Russia to face prison”.
The drug dealer from Elmesthorpe, Leicestershire had talked about an additional planned incident in the Czech Republic.
In a residence inspection, police 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 court heard he was a participant in numerous channels promoting Russian propaganda and was driven by “simple and ugly greed”.
“This case is about the efforts of the Russian Federation to acquire harmful worldwide sway using social media to enlist saboteurs vast distances from Moscow.”
She determined the arson attack had a “terrorist connection” regardless of whether the perpetrators were aware of it. The Wagner group is proscribed by the UK government as a terrorist group.
