🔗 Share this article

A group of six individuals from Britain acting for Russia’s Wagner group have been sentenced to prison for igniting 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 central criminal court stated that they had planned a “series of terrorist and sabotage acts” to benefit the Russian government.

The individual named Dylan Earl was given a 17-year jail term with an additional six years on extended licence due to his “primary involvement”. Another defendant, Jake Reeves, a resident of Croydon, South London, was sentenced to 12 years in jail with one 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 eight years and 10 months. Nii Mensah, a Thornton Heath, South London local, was given nine years imprisonment and Ugnius Asmena, who was without a fixed address, was handed seven years in prison. The trio were each convicted of aggravated arson and received a additional year on supervised release by the judge.

Ashton Evans, a 20-year-old individual involved in drug trafficking from Newport in 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 a separate scheme in Mayfair.

Details of the Attack

The deliberate fire on a Leyton-based storage facility in East London endangered sixty fire service personnel and resulted in 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 did not leave their bedrooms while coordinating the incident for the Wagner mercenary organization, representing the Russian Federation.

The individuals involved targeted the storage facility because it was being utilized for providing emergency relief and StarLink satellite equipment to Ukraine.

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

Evidence and Further Plans

When Earl was arrested, law enforcement examination of his mobile phone uncovered he had videos of the storage facility blaze being started and was in contact with the Wagner group on Telegram, via an account with the handles ‘Privet Bot account’ and ‘Lucky Strike alias’.

Some of the communications showed that reconnaissance for further “missions”, involving arson attacks at a restaurant and wine shop in Mayfair owned by the Russian opposition figure Evgeny Chichvarkin had already taken place. The employment of explosive devices to harm structures was also discussed.

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

The drug dealer 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 hydrochloride with a street 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 “simple and ugly greed”.

“This legal matter concerns the attempts by the Russian government to gain pernicious global influence using online platforms to enlist saboteurs vast distances from Moscow.”

She found the fire incident had a “link to terrorism” regardless of whether the individuals responsible knew it. The Wagner group is proscribed by the UK government as a terrorist group.