🔗 Share this article

A group of six individuals from Britain working on behalf of Russia’s Wagner group have been handed jail terms for setting fire to a London-based storage unit that was holding humanitarian aid destined for Ukraine.

Court Rulings and Involvement

Sentencing the men, the judge at the Old Bailey 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 extra six-year period on supervised release due to his “leading role”. Jake Reeves, a resident of Croydon, South London, was sentenced to 12 years in jail with one year on extended licence. Their admitted crimes made them the first individuals to be convicted under the National Security Act 2023.

Jakeem Rose, also a Croydon resident, was sentenced to eight years and 10 months. Nii Mensah, a Thornton Heath, South London local, was given nine years and Ugnius Asmena, 21, who was without a fixed address, was given seven years. The trio were each convicted of serious fire-setting and received a additional year on extended licence by the judge.

Ashton Evans drug dealer hailing from Newport, Gwent, was sentenced to nine years imprisonment with an extra year on extended licence after being convicted of failing to disclose information about acts of terrorism relating to a separate scheme in the Mayfair area.

Details of the Attack

The deliberate fire on a warehouse in Leyton, east London endangered sixty fire service personnel and resulted in one million pounds worth of destruction in March last year.

The court heard that the 21-year-old Earl and Reeves, 24 did not leave their bedrooms while coordinating the incident for the Wagner group, acting on behalf of the Russian government.

The group 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 subjected to an arson attack 10 days later in the Spanish capital, investigators from the Metropolitan Police's anti-terror unit assumed control of the investigation.

Proof and Additional Schemes

When Earl was taken into custody, police analysis of his mobile phone revealed he had videos of the warehouse fire being initiated and was in contact with the Wagner organization on the Telegram messaging app, via an account with the usernames ‘Privet Bot’ 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 been carried out. The employment of explosive devices to damage buildings was also discussed.

Detectives found that Earl was also considering the possibility of kidnapping the dissident Chichvarkin and “sending him back to Russia to confront imprisonment”.

The individual involved in narcotics from Elmesthorpe, Leicestershire had discussed another potential attack in the Czech nation.

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 court heard he was a participant in multiple channels promoting Russian propaganda and was motivated by “plain and severe avarice”.

“This legal matter concerns the efforts of the Russian Federation to acquire harmful worldwide sway using online platforms to recruit disruptors far from the Russian capital.”

She found the fire incident 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.