🔗 Share this article

A group of six individuals from Britain working on behalf of the Wagner mercenary group linked to Russia have been handed jail terms for igniting a London-based warehouse that was holding relief supplies intended for Ukraine.

Court Rulings and Involvement

While delivering the sentences, the presiding 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 17-year jail term with an extra six-year period on supervised release due to his “leading role”. Jake Reeves, from Croydon in south London, was sentenced to 12 years in prison with one year on supervised release. Their admitted crimes made them the initial persons to be found guilty under the 2023 National Security Act.

Jakeem Rose, aged 23, also from Croydon, was jailed for eight years and 10 months. Nii Mensah, 23, a Thornton Heath, South London local, was sentenced to nine years and Ugnius Asmena, 21, who was without a fixed address, was handed seven years. The trio were each found guilty of aggravated arson and given a additional year on supervised release by the court.

Ashton Evans, a 20-year-old drug dealer hailing from Newport, Gwent, was jailed for nine years imprisonment with an extra year on extended licence after being convicted of withholding information about acts of terrorism connected 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 £1m in damage in March last year.

The court heard 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 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 hit by an intentional fire 10 days later in the Spanish capital, investigators from the Metropolitan Police's anti-terror unit took over 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 initiated and was in communication with the Wagner organization on the Telegram messaging app, via an user profile with the handles ‘Privet Bot’ and ‘Lucky Strike alias’.

Some of the messages indicated that preliminary surveillance for further “missions”, involving arson attacks at a restaurant and wine shop in Mayfair district belonging to the Russian opposition figure Evgeny Chichvarkin had already been carried out. The use of explosives to damage buildings was also deliberated.

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

The drug dealer from Elmesthorpe in Leicestershire had discussed another potential attack in the Czech Republic.

In a residence inspection, law enforcement located a flag of Russia, more than £20,000 in cash and cocaine hydrochloride with a market value of approximately thirty-four thousand pounds.

Driving Factors and Court Comments

The proceedings revealed 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 social media to recruit disruptors vast distances from Moscow.”

She determined 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 group.