🔗 Share this article

A group of six individuals from Britain acting for the Wagner mercenary group linked to Russia have been sentenced to prison for setting fire to a located in London storage unit that was storing humanitarian aid intended for Ukraine.

Court Rulings and Involvement

While delivering the sentences, the presiding judge at the Old Bailey stated that they had planned a “series of terrorist and sabotage acts” in the interests of the Russian government.

Dylan Earl was given a seventeen-year jail term with an additional six years on supervised release due to his “primary involvement”. Another defendant, Jake Reeves, from Croydon in south London, was sentenced to twelve years in prison with an additional year on supervised release. The offences they admitted resulted in them being the first individuals to be found guilty 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, a Thornton Heath, South London local, was sentenced to nine years imprisonment and Ugnius Asmena, 21, who was homeless, was given seven years in prison. The trio were each convicted of aggravated arson and given a further year on supervised release by the court.

Ashton Evans, a 20-year-old drug dealer hailing from Newport, Gwent, was sentenced to nine years plus a further year on supervised release after being convicted of withholding details regarding acts of terrorism 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 caused £1m in damage in March last year.

The proceedings revealed that Earl, 21 and Reeves, 24 remained in their residences while organising the attack for the Wagner group, acting on behalf of the Russian Federation.

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

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

Proof and Additional Schemes

When Earl was arrested, police analysis of his mobile phone revealed he had videos of the storage facility blaze being started and was in communication with the Wagner organization on the Telegram messaging app, via an user profile with the usernames ‘Privet Bot’ and ‘Lucky Strike’.

Some of the communications showed that preliminary surveillance for additional operations, involving fire-related incidents at a restaurant and wine store in Mayfair belonging to the Russian dissident Evgeny Chichvarkin had already taken place. The use of explosives to damage buildings was also deliberated.

Investigators discovered that Earl was also considering the potential abduction of Chichvarkin and “sending him back to Russia to face prison”.

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

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

Motivations and Judicial Remarks

The proceedings revealed he was a participant in numerous channels promoting Russian propaganda 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 far from the Russian capital.”

She found the arson attack had a “terrorist connection” regardless of whether the perpetrators knew it. The Wagner organization is banned by the British authorities as a terrorist organisation.