Six Britons working on behalf of Russia’s Wagner group have been sentenced to prison for igniting a located in London warehouse that was storing humanitarian aid destined for Ukraine.
Sentencing and Roles
Sentencing the men, the judge at the Old Bailey remarked that they had planned a “campaign of terrorism and sabotage” in the interests of the Russian state.
Dylan Earl received a seventeen-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 extended licence. The offences they admitted resulted in them being the initial persons to be found guilty under the National Security Act 2023.
Jakeem Rose, aged 23, also from Croydon, was jailed for a term of eight years and ten months. Nii Mensah, from Thornton Heath, south London, was sentenced to nine years and Ugnius Asmena, who was homeless, was handed seven years in prison. The trio were each found guilty of aggravated arson and received a further year on supervised release by the court.
Ashton Evans drug dealer hailing from Newport, Gwent, was sentenced to nine years imprisonment plus a further year on supervised release after being found guilty of withholding information about acts of terrorism relating to another plot in Mayfair.
Details of the Attack
The arson attack on a Leyton-based storage facility in East London put 60 firefighters at risk 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, representing the Russian government.
The group selected the storage facility because it was being utilized for providing emergency relief and StarLink satellite equipment to Ukraine.
When the same Ukrainian company was subjected to an arson attack ten days afterward in Madrid, investigators from the Metropolitan Police's anti-terror unit took over the investigation.
Evidence and Further Plans
When Earl was taken into custody, law enforcement examination of his cellphone uncovered he had recordings of the warehouse fire being started and was in contact with the Wagner group on the Telegram messaging app, via an account with the handles ‘Privet Bot account’ and ‘Lucky Strike’.
Some of the communications showed that reconnaissance for further “missions”, involving arson attacks at a dining establishment and wine shop in Mayfair district owned by the Russian dissident Evgeny Chichvarkin had already taken place. The employment of explosive devices to damage buildings was also deliberated.
Detectives found 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 talked about another potential attack in the Czech Republic.
In a residence inspection, law enforcement found a flag of Russia, over twenty thousand pounds in currency and cocaine hydrochloride with a street value of approximately thirty-four thousand pounds.
Motivations and Judicial Remarks
The court heard he was a member of numerous pro-Russian propaganda channels and was motivated by “simple and ugly greed”.
“This case is about the efforts of the Russian Federation to acquire harmful worldwide sway using online platforms to enlist saboteurs far from the Russian capital.”
She found the fire incident had a “terrorist connection” regardless of whether the perpetrators were aware of it. The Wagner organization is proscribed by the British authorities as a terrorist group.
