Six Britons acting for Russia’s Wagner group have been sentenced to prison for setting fire to a London-based storage unit that was holding humanitarian aid destined for Ukraine.
Court Rulings and Involvement
Sentencing the men, the presiding judge at the Old Bailey remarked that they had orchestrated a “series of terrorist and sabotage acts” in the interests of the Russian government.
Dylan Earl was given a seventeen-year jail term with an extra six-year period 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 an additional year on supervised release. The offences they admitted made them the first individuals to be convicted under the 2023 National Security Act.
Jakeem Rose, also from Croydon, was jailed for a term of eight years and ten months. Nii Mensah, 23, a Thornton Heath, South London local, was sentenced to nine years and Ugnius Asmena, who was without a fixed address, was given seven years in prison. The trio were each found guilty of aggravated arson and received a additional year on extended licence by the court.
Ashton Evans drug dealer from Newport in Gwent, was sentenced to nine years imprisonment with an extra year on supervised release after being found guilty of withholding details regarding terrorist acts connected to another plot in Mayfair.
Incident Specifics
The arson attack on a Leyton-based storage facility in 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 the 24-year-old Reeves remained in their residences while organising the attack for the Wagner group, acting on behalf of the Russian Federation.
The individuals involved selected the storage facility because it was being used to supply emergency relief and StarLink satellite equipment to Ukraine.
When the same Ukrainian company was subjected to an arson attack ten days afterward in the Spanish capital, detectives from the Met’s counter-terrorism command assumed control of the investigation.
Evidence and Further Plans
When Earl was arrested, law enforcement examination of his mobile phone revealed he had recordings of the storage facility blaze being initiated and was in contact with the Wagner group on the Telegram messaging app, via an user profile with the handles ‘Privet Bot’ and ‘Lucky Strike alias’.
Some of the messages showed that preliminary surveillance for further “missions”, involving fire-related incidents at a restaurant and wine store in Mayfair owned by the Russian dissident Evgeny Chichvarkin had already taken place. The employment of explosive devices to harm structures was also deliberated.
Investigators discovered that Earl was also considering the potential abduction of the dissident Chichvarkin and “sending him back to Russia to face prison”.
The drug dealer from Elmesthorpe, Leicestershire had discussed another potential attack in the Czech nation.
In a search of his home, police found a Russian flag, over twenty thousand pounds in currency and cocaine hydrochloride with a street value of approximately thirty-four thousand pounds.
Driving Factors and Court Comments
The proceedings revealed he was a participant in multiple channels promoting Russian propaganda and was driven by “simple and ugly greed”.
“This case is about the attempts by the Russian government to gain pernicious global influence using online platforms to enlist saboteurs far from the Russian capital.”
She found the arson attack had a “link to terrorism” irrespective of if the individuals responsible were aware of it. The Wagner group is proscribed by the UK government as a terrorist group.
