🔗 Share this article

A group of six individuals from Britain working on behalf of the Wagner mercenary group linked to Russia have been handed jail terms for setting fire to a London-based warehouse that was holding relief supplies destined for Ukraine.

Court Rulings and Involvement

Sentencing the men, the judge at the central criminal court remarked that they had orchestrated a “campaign of terrorism and sabotage” in the interests of the Russian state.

The individual named Dylan Earl was given a seventeen-year prison sentence with an additional six years on extended licence due to his “primary involvement”. Another defendant, Jake Reeves, from Croydon in south London, was sentenced to twelve years in jail with an additional year on supervised release. The offences they admitted resulted in them being the initial persons to be found guilty under the National Security Act 2023.

Jakeem Rose, also from Croydon, was jailed for a term of eight years and ten months. Nii Mensah, a Thornton Heath, South London local, was given 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 further year on extended licence by the judge.

Ashton Evans, a 20-year-old individual involved in drug trafficking hailing from Newport, Gwent, was jailed for nine years with an extra year on supervised release after being convicted of failing to disclose information about terrorist acts connected to a separate scheme in Mayfair.

Details of the Attack

The deliberate fire on a warehouse in Leyton, east London put 60 firefighters at risk and resulted in £1m in damage in March last year.

The court heard that Earl, 21 and the 24-year-old Reeves remained in their residences while organising the attack for the Wagner group, representing the Russian government.

The group targeted the storage facility because it was being utilized for providing emergency relief and StarLink satellite equipment to Ukraine.

When the identical Ukrainian firm was subjected to an arson attack 10 days later in the Spanish capital, detectives from the Met’s counter-terrorism command assumed control of the probe.

Proof and Additional Schemes

When Earl was arrested, law enforcement examination of his mobile phone uncovered he had recordings of the warehouse fire being initiated and was in communication with the Wagner organization on the Telegram messaging app, via an account with the usernames ‘Privet Bot’ and ‘Lucky Strike alias’.

Some of the messages indicated that reconnaissance for additional operations, involving arson attacks at a restaurant and wine shop in Mayfair district owned by the Russian opposition figure Evgeny Chichvarkin had already taken place. The employment of explosive devices to harm structures was also discussed.

Investigators found that the defendant Earl was also raising the possibility of kidnapping Chichvarkin and “exiling him back to Russia to confront imprisonment”.

The individual involved in narcotics from Elmesthorpe in Leicestershire had talked about another potential attack in the Czech Republic.

In a search of his home, law enforcement found a Russian flag, more than £20,000 in cash and cocaine with a street value of about £34,000.

Driving Factors and Court Comments

The proceedings revealed he was a member of numerous channels promoting Russian propaganda and was motivated by “plain and severe avarice”.

“This case is about the efforts of the Russian Federation to gain pernicious global influence using social media to recruit disruptors vast distances from Moscow.”

She determined the fire incident had a “terrorist connection” irrespective of if the individuals responsible were aware of it. The Wagner organization is proscribed by the British authorities as a terrorist organisation.