🔗 Share this article

A group of six individuals from Britain acting for Russia’s Wagner group have been sentenced to prison for setting fire to a London-based storage unit that was storing relief supplies intended for Ukraine.

Sentencing and Roles

While delivering the sentences, the judge at the Old Bailey remarked that they had orchestrated a “series of terrorist and sabotage acts” to benefit the Russian state.

Dylan Earl was given a seventeen-year prison sentence with an additional six years on supervised release due to his “leading role”. Jake Reeves, a resident of Croydon, South London, was given twelve years in prison with an additional year on extended licence. The offences they admitted made them the initial persons to be found guilty under the National Security Act 2023.

Jakeem Rose, also from Croydon, was jailed for a term of eight years and ten months. Nii Mensah, 23, from Thornton Heath, south London, was sentenced to nine years imprisonment and Ugnius Asmena, who was homeless, was given seven years in prison. The trio were each found guilty of serious fire-setting and received a further year on extended licence by the court.

Ashton Evans, a 20-year-old drug dealer hailing from Newport, Gwent, was sentenced to nine years imprisonment with an extra year on supervised release after being convicted of failing to disclose information about terrorist acts relating to another plot in the Mayfair area.

Incident Specifics

The arson attack on a warehouse in Leyton, east London put 60 firefighters at risk and resulted in one million pounds worth of destruction in March of the previous year.

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

The individuals involved selected the storage facility because it was being used to supply emergency relief and satellite communication gear to Ukraine.

When the identical Ukrainian firm was subjected to an intentional fire ten days afterward in Madrid, detectives from the Met’s counter-terrorism command assumed control of the probe.

Evidence and Further Plans

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

Some of the messages showed that preliminary surveillance for further “missions”, involving fire-related incidents at a dining establishment and wine shop in Mayfair district belonging to the Russian dissident Evgeny Chichvarkin had already taken place. The employment of explosive devices to harm structures was also deliberated.

Investigators found that the defendant Earl was also raising the possibility of kidnapping the dissident Chichvarkin and “exiling 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, law enforcement found a Russian flag, more than £20,000 in cash and cocaine with a street value of approximately thirty-four thousand pounds.

Motivations and Judicial Remarks

The court heard he was a participant in multiple 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 determined the arson attack had a “link to terrorism” regardless of whether the perpetrators were aware of it. The Wagner organization is banned by the British authorities as a terrorist group.