🔗 Share this article

A group of six individuals from Britain working on behalf of the Wagner mercenary group linked to Russia have been sentenced to prison for setting fire to a located in London warehouse that was storing humanitarian aid intended for Ukraine.

Court Rulings and Involvement

Sentencing the men, the presiding judge at the central criminal court stated that they had planned a “series of terrorist and sabotage acts” in the interests of the Russian government.

Dylan Earl was given a 17-year jail term with an additional six years on extended licence due to his “primary involvement”. Jake Reeves, from Croydon in south London, was sentenced to 12 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, aged 23, also from Croydon, was jailed for eight years and 10 months. Nii Mensah, from Thornton Heath, south London, was given nine years 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 further year on supervised release by the judge.

Ashton Evans drug dealer hailing from Newport, Gwent, was sentenced to nine years imprisonment plus a further year on extended licence after being convicted of failing to disclose information about terrorist acts connected to another plot in Mayfair.

Details of the Attack

The deliberate fire on a warehouse in Leyton, east London endangered sixty fire service personnel and resulted in £1m in damage in March last year.

The proceedings revealed that Earl, 21 and Reeves, 24 did not leave their bedrooms while coordinating the incident 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 emergency relief and satellite communication gear to Ukraine.

When the same Ukrainian company was hit by an intentional fire ten days afterward in the Spanish capital, investigators from the Metropolitan Police's anti-terror unit took over the investigation.

Proof and Additional Schemes

When Earl was taken into custody, 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 account’ and ‘Lucky Strike alias’.

Some of the messages showed that reconnaissance for additional operations, involving fire-related incidents at a dining establishment and wine store in Mayfair belonging to the Russian dissident Evgeny Chichvarkin had already been carried out. The employment of explosive devices to damage buildings was also discussed.

Detectives found that the defendant Earl was also considering the potential abduction of Chichvarkin and “sending him back to Russia to face prison”.

The drug dealer from Elmesthorpe, Leicestershire had discussed an additional planned incident in the Czech Republic.

In a residence inspection, law enforcement located a Russian flag, more than £20,000 in cash and cocaine with a market value of about £34,000.

Driving Factors and Court Comments

The court heard he was a member of numerous pro-Russian propaganda channels and was driven by “simple and ugly greed”.

“This case is about the efforts of the Russian Federation to acquire harmful worldwide sway using online platforms to recruit disruptors far from the Russian capital.”

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