Six Britons acting for Russia’s Wagner group have been sentenced to prison for igniting a London-based storage unit that was holding relief supplies intended for Ukraine.
Sentencing and Roles
Sentencing the men, the presiding judge at the central criminal court stated that they had planned a “campaign of terrorism and sabotage” to benefit the Russian government.
The individual named Dylan Earl was given 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 supervised release. The offences they admitted resulted in them being the initial persons 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, from Thornton Heath, south London, was sentenced to nine years imprisonment and Ugnius Asmena, who was homeless, was handed seven years. The trio were each found guilty of aggravated arson and received a additional year on extended licence by the court.
Ashton Evans, a 20-year-old individual involved in drug trafficking hailing from Newport, Gwent, was jailed for 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 caused £1m in damage in March of the previous year.
The proceedings revealed that Earl, 21 and Reeves, 24 did not leave their bedrooms 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 satellite communication gear to Ukraine.
When the same Ukrainian company was hit by an arson attack 10 days later in Madrid, detectives from the Met’s counter-terrorism command took over the investigation.
Evidence and Further Plans
When Earl was taken into custody, law enforcement examination of his mobile phone uncovered he had recordings of the storage facility blaze 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 showed that reconnaissance for further “missions”, involving fire-related incidents at a dining establishment and wine shop in Mayfair district owned by the Russian opposition figure Evgeny Chichvarkin had already taken place. The employment of explosive devices to damage buildings was also discussed.
Investigators discovered that Earl was also raising the potential abduction of the dissident Chichvarkin and “sending him back to Russia to face prison”.
The drug dealer 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 hydrochloride with a market value of about £34,000.
Motivations and Judicial Remarks
The proceedings revealed he was a member of numerous channels promoting Russian propaganda and was driven by “simple and ugly greed”.
“This legal matter concerns the efforts of the Russian Federation to gain pernicious global influence using online platforms to recruit disruptors far from the Russian capital.”
She found the arson attack had a “terrorist connection” irrespective of if the perpetrators were aware of it. The Wagner group is banned by the UK government as a terrorist organisation.
