🔗 Share this article

Six Britons acting for Russia’s Wagner group have been handed jail terms for setting fire to a located in London storage unit that was storing relief supplies destined for Ukraine.

Sentencing and Roles

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

The individual named Dylan Earl was given a seventeen-year prison sentence with an extra six-year period on extended licence due to his “primary involvement”. Jake Reeves, a resident of Croydon, South London, was sentenced to 12 years in jail with an additional year on supervised release. The offences they admitted made them the first individuals to be found guilty under the 2023 National Security Act.

Jakeem Rose, also a Croydon resident, was sentenced to a term of eight years and ten months. Nii Mensah, from Thornton Heath, south London, was given nine years and Ugnius Asmena, who was homeless, was handed seven years. These three individuals were each found guilty of serious fire-setting and given a additional year on extended licence by the court.

Ashton Evans, a 20-year-old individual involved in drug trafficking hailing from Newport, Gwent, was sentenced to nine years with an extra year on extended licence after being convicted of withholding information about acts of terrorism relating to another plot in the Mayfair area.

Incident Specifics

The deliberate fire on a Leyton-based storage facility in East London endangered sixty fire service personnel and caused £1m in damage in March last year.

The proceedings revealed that Earl, 21 and the 24-year-old Reeves did not leave their bedrooms while organising the attack for the Wagner mercenary organization, representing the Russian Federation.

The individuals involved 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 arson attack ten days afterward in the Spanish capital, detectives from the Met’s counter-terrorism command took over the probe.

Proof and Additional Schemes

When Earl was taken into custody, law enforcement examination of his cellphone revealed he had recordings of the storage facility blaze being initiated and was in contact with the Wagner organization on Telegram, via an user profile with the handles ‘Privet Bot account’ and ‘Lucky Strike alias’.

Some of the communications showed that reconnaissance for additional operations, involving fire-related incidents at a dining establishment and wine store in Mayfair district owned by the Russian dissident Evgeny Chichvarkin had already been carried out. The use of explosives to damage buildings was also discussed.

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

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

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

Motivations and Judicial Remarks

The proceedings revealed he was a participant in numerous channels promoting Russian propaganda 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 enlist saboteurs far from the Russian capital.”

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