🔗 Share this article

Six Britons acting for the Wagner mercenary group linked to Russia have been sentenced to prison for setting fire to a London-based warehouse that was storing relief supplies destined for Ukraine.

Court Rulings and Involvement

Sentencing the men, the presiding judge at the Old Bailey remarked that they had planned a “series of terrorist and sabotage acts” in the interests of the Russian state.

Dylan Earl received a 17-year prison sentence with an extra six-year period on supervised release due to his “leading role”. Another defendant, Jake Reeves, from Croydon in south London, was given twelve years in prison with one year on supervised release. Their admitted crimes made them the initial persons to be convicted under the National Security Act 2023.

Jakeem Rose, also from Croydon, was jailed for eight years and 10 months. Nii Mensah, from Thornton Heath, south London, was given nine years and Ugnius Asmena, 21, who was homeless, was given seven years. The trio were each convicted of serious fire-setting and received a additional year on supervised release by the court.

Ashton Evans, a 20-year-old individual involved in drug trafficking from Newport in Gwent, was sentenced to nine years with an extra year on extended licence after being convicted of withholding information about terrorist acts connected to another plot 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 proceedings revealed that Earl, 21 and Reeves, 24 remained in their residences while coordinating the incident for the Wagner mercenary organization, acting on behalf of the Russian government.

The group targeted the storage facility because it was being used to supply emergency relief and StarLink satellite equipment to Ukraine.

When the same Ukrainian company was subjected to an arson attack 10 days later in Madrid, investigators from the Metropolitan Police's anti-terror unit assumed control of the investigation.

Evidence and Further Plans

When Earl was taken into custody, police analysis of his mobile phone revealed he had videos of the warehouse fire being started and was in contact with the Wagner organization on the Telegram messaging app, via an account with the handles ‘Privet Bot’ and ‘Lucky Strike’.

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

Investigators discovered that Earl was also considering the potential abduction of 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, law enforcement found a flag of Russia, over twenty thousand pounds in currency and cocaine with a market value of approximately thirty-four thousand pounds.

Driving Factors and Court Comments

The proceedings revealed he was a participant in multiple pro-Russian propaganda channels and was motivated by “simple and ugly greed”.

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

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 UK government as a terrorist organisation.