🔗 Share this article

Six Britons working on behalf of the Wagner mercenary group linked to Russia have been sentenced to prison for setting fire to a located in London warehouse that was holding relief supplies intended for Ukraine.

Court Rulings and Involvement

Sentencing the men, the judge at the Old Bailey stated that they had planned a “series of terrorist and sabotage acts” to benefit the Russian government.

Dylan Earl was given a seventeen-year prison sentence with an extra six-year period on supervised release due to his “primary involvement”. Jake Reeves, a resident of Croydon, South London, was given twelve years in jail with an additional year on extended licence. Their admitted crimes made them the initial persons to be convicted under the National Security Act 2023.

Jakeem Rose, aged 23, also from Croydon, was sentenced to eight years and 10 months. Nii Mensah, a Thornton Heath, South London local, was sentenced to nine years and Ugnius Asmena, who was without a fixed address, was handed seven years. The trio were each convicted of serious fire-setting and given a additional year on supervised release by the judge.

Ashton Evans, a 20-year-old individual involved in drug trafficking hailing from Newport, Gwent, was sentenced to nine years plus a further year on supervised release after being convicted of failing to disclose information about terrorist acts relating to a separate scheme in the Mayfair area.

Details of the Attack

The deliberate fire on a warehouse in Leyton, east London put 60 firefighters at risk and caused £1m in damage 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, representing 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 ten days afterward in Madrid, detectives from the Met’s counter-terrorism command took over the probe.

Proof and Additional Schemes

When Earl was arrested, police analysis of his cellphone revealed he had videos of the storage facility blaze being started and was in communication with the Wagner organization on Telegram, via an account with the handles ‘Privet Bot account’ and ‘Lucky Strike’.

Some of the messages showed that reconnaissance for further “missions”, involving arson attacks at a restaurant and wine store in Mayfair belonging to the Russian dissident Evgeny Chichvarkin had already been carried out. The employment of explosive devices to damage buildings was also discussed.

Detectives found that the defendant Earl was also considering the potential abduction of Chichvarkin and “exiling him back to Russia to confront imprisonment”.

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

In a search of his home, law enforcement found a Russian flag, over twenty thousand pounds in currency and cocaine hydrochloride with a market value of approximately thirty-four thousand pounds.

Driving Factors and Court Comments

The court heard he was a participant in numerous pro-Russian propaganda channels and was motivated by “simple and ugly greed”.

“This case is about the attempts by the Russian government 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 individuals responsible knew it. The Wagner organization is banned by the UK government as a terrorist organisation.