🔗 Share this article

Six Britons acting for Russia’s Wagner group have been sentenced to prison for igniting a London-based warehouse that was storing humanitarian aid intended for Ukraine.

Sentencing and Roles

While delivering the sentences, the presiding judge at the central criminal court remarked that they had planned a “campaign of terrorism and sabotage” to benefit the Russian state.

Dylan Earl received a seventeen-year prison sentence with an additional six years on supervised release due to his “leading role”. Another defendant, Jake Reeves, a resident of Croydon, South London, was sentenced to twelve years in prison with an additional year on extended licence. Their admitted crimes resulted in them being the first individuals to be convicted under the 2023 National Security Act.

Jakeem Rose, aged 23, also a Croydon resident, 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 without a fixed address, was handed seven years. The trio were each convicted of serious fire-setting and received a further year on extended licence by the judge.

Ashton Evans drug dealer from Newport in Gwent, was jailed for nine years imprisonment with an extra year on extended licence after being found guilty of failing to disclose details regarding acts of terrorism connected to a separate scheme in the Mayfair area.

Incident Specifics

The arson attack on a Leyton-based storage facility in East London endangered sixty fire service personnel and caused one million pounds worth of destruction in March last year.

The court heard that the 21-year-old Earl and the 24-year-old Reeves remained in their residences while coordinating the incident for the Wagner group, representing the Russian Federation.

The individuals involved selected the warehouse because it was being used to supply humanitarian aid and StarLink satellite equipment to Ukraine.

When the identical Ukrainian firm was subjected to an intentional fire 10 days later in the Spanish capital, detectives from the Met’s counter-terrorism command assumed control of the investigation.

Proof and Additional Schemes

When Earl was arrested, police analysis of his cellphone uncovered he had recordings of the storage facility blaze being started and was in communication with the Wagner group on the Telegram messaging app, via an user profile with the handles ‘Privet Bot’ and ‘Lucky Strike’.

Some of the communications indicated that preliminary surveillance for further “missions”, involving arson attacks at a dining establishment and wine shop in Mayfair district owned by the Russian dissident Evgeny Chichvarkin had already been carried out. The employment of explosive devices to damage buildings was also discussed.

Investigators found that the defendant Earl was also raising the potential abduction of the dissident Chichvarkin and “sending him back to Russia to confront imprisonment”.

The drug dealer from Elmesthorpe in Leicestershire had talked about an additional planned incident in the Czech nation.

In a residence inspection, law enforcement located a flag of Russia, more than £20,000 in cash and cocaine 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 driven by “simple and ugly greed”.

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

She determined the arson attack had a “terrorist connection” regardless of whether the individuals responsible knew it. The Wagner organization is proscribed by the British authorities as a terrorist group.