🔗 Share this article

Six Britons acting for Russia’s Wagner group have been sentenced to prison for setting fire to a London-based warehouse that was holding relief supplies intended for Ukraine.

Court Rulings and Involvement

Sentencing the men, the judge at the Old Bailey stated that they had orchestrated a “series of terrorist and sabotage acts” to benefit the Russian government.

Dylan Earl received a seventeen-year jail term with an additional six years on extended licence due to his “primary involvement”. Jake Reeves, a resident of Croydon, South London, was given twelve years in prison with an additional year on supervised release. The offences they admitted made them the first individuals to be convicted 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, 23, from Thornton Heath, south London, was given nine years and Ugnius Asmena, who was homeless, was handed seven years. The trio were each found guilty of serious fire-setting and given a further year on extended licence by the judge.

Ashton Evans, a 20-year-old individual involved in drug trafficking from Newport in Gwent, was sentenced to nine years plus a further year on supervised release after being convicted of failing to disclose details regarding terrorist acts connected to a separate scheme in the Mayfair area.

Details of the Attack

The deliberate fire on a Leyton-based storage facility in East London put 60 firefighters at risk and resulted in one million pounds worth of destruction in March of the previous year.

The court heard that Earl, 21 and Reeves, 24 did not leave their bedrooms while organising the attack for the Wagner mercenary organization, representing the Russian government.

The group targeted the warehouse because it was being used to supply humanitarian aid and StarLink satellite equipment to Ukraine.

When the identical Ukrainian firm was hit by an intentional fire ten days afterward in the Spanish capital, detectives from the Met’s counter-terrorism command assumed control of the probe.

Evidence and Further Plans

When Earl was arrested, police analysis of his cellphone revealed he had recordings of the warehouse fire being initiated and was in contact with the Wagner organization on the Telegram messaging app, via an user profile with the usernames ‘Privet Bot’ and ‘Lucky Strike’.

Some of the messages indicated that reconnaissance for additional operations, involving fire-related incidents at a restaurant and wine store in Mayfair district belonging to the Russian opposition figure Evgeny Chichvarkin had already taken place. The employment of explosive devices to harm structures was also deliberated.

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

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

In a residence inspection, police located a flag of Russia, over twenty thousand pounds in currency and cocaine with a street value of about £34,000.

Motivations and Judicial Remarks

The court heard he was a member of multiple 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 online platforms to recruit disruptors vast distances from Moscow.”

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