🔗 Share this article

A group of six individuals from Britain acting for Russia’s Wagner group have been handed jail terms for igniting a London-based storage unit that was holding humanitarian aid destined for Ukraine.

Court Rulings and Involvement

Sentencing the men, the judge at the central criminal court stated that they had planned a “campaign of terrorism and sabotage” in the interests of 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, a resident of Croydon, South London, was given 12 years in prison with one year on supervised release. Their admitted crimes resulted in them being the first individuals to be convicted under the National Security Act 2023.

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 given nine years imprisonment and Ugnius Asmena, 21, who was without a fixed address, was given seven years in prison. The trio were each convicted of aggravated arson and given a additional year on supervised release by the judge.

Ashton Evans drug dealer hailing from Newport, Gwent, was sentenced to nine years plus a further year on extended licence after being found guilty of withholding information about terrorist acts connected to a separate scheme in Mayfair.

Incident Specifics

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 court heard that Earl, 21 and Reeves, 24 remained in their residences while coordinating the incident for the Wagner mercenary organization, representing the Russian Federation.

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

When the identical Ukrainian firm was hit by an intentional fire ten days afterward in Madrid, investigators from the Metropolitan Police's anti-terror unit assumed control of the probe.

Evidence and Further Plans

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

Some of the messages indicated that reconnaissance for additional operations, involving fire-related incidents at a dining establishment and wine shop in Mayfair belonging to the Russian opposition figure Evgeny Chichvarkin had already been carried out. The employment of explosive devices to harm structures was also discussed.

Detectives discovered that the defendant Earl was also raising the possibility of kidnapping Chichvarkin and “sending him back to Russia to confront imprisonment”.

The individual involved in narcotics from Elmesthorpe, Leicestershire had discussed an additional planned incident in the Czech Republic.

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

Motivations and Judicial Remarks

The court heard he was a member of multiple channels promoting Russian propaganda and was driven by “plain and severe avarice”.

“This case is about the attempts by the Russian government to gain pernicious global influence using online platforms to recruit disruptors far from the Russian capital.”

She determined the fire incident had a “link to terrorism” regardless of whether the perpetrators knew it. The Wagner group is banned by the UK government as a terrorist organisation.