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Six Britons acting for Russia’s Wagner group have been sentenced to prison for igniting a London-based storage unit that was holding humanitarian aid destined for Ukraine.

Court Rulings and Involvement

Sentencing the men, the presiding judge at the central criminal court remarked that they had planned a “series of terrorist and sabotage acts” in the interests of the Russian state.

Dylan Earl was given a seventeen-year jail term with an extra six-year period on extended licence due to his “primary involvement”. Another defendant, Jake Reeves, from Croydon in south London, was given 12 years in prison with an additional year on supervised release. The offences they admitted made them the initial persons to be found guilty under the National Security Act 2023.

Jakeem Rose, aged 23, 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 and Ugnius Asmena, 21, who was homeless, was given seven years in prison. These three individuals were each convicted of aggravated arson and given a further year on extended licence by the court.

Ashton Evans individual involved in drug trafficking hailing from Newport, Gwent, was jailed for nine years imprisonment with an extra year on extended licence after being convicted of withholding information about terrorist acts relating to a separate scheme in the Mayfair area.

Details of the Attack

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

The court heard that the 21-year-old Earl and Reeves, 24 did not leave their bedrooms while organising the attack for the Wagner group, acting on behalf of the Russian government.

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

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

Evidence and Further Plans

When Earl was arrested, police analysis of his mobile phone revealed he had recordings of the warehouse fire being initiated and was in contact with the Wagner organization on the Telegram messaging app, via an user profile with the usernames ‘Privet Bot’ and ‘Lucky Strike’.

Some of the messages showed that preliminary surveillance for additional operations, involving arson attacks at a restaurant and wine shop in Mayfair district owned by the Russian dissident Evgeny Chichvarkin had already taken place. The use of explosives to damage buildings was also discussed.

Detectives discovered that Earl was also raising the possibility of kidnapping the dissident Chichvarkin and “exiling him back to Russia to face prison”.

The drug dealer from Elmesthorpe, Leicestershire had discussed an additional planned incident in the Czech Republic.

In a search of his home, law enforcement located a flag of Russia, over twenty thousand pounds in currency and cocaine hydrochloride with a street value of about £34,000.

Motivations and Judicial Remarks

The court heard he was a member of multiple pro-Russian propaganda channels and was driven by “simple and ugly greed”.

“This legal matter concerns the efforts of the Russian Federation to gain pernicious global influence using online platforms to enlist saboteurs vast distances from Moscow.”

She determined the arson attack had a “link to terrorism” irrespective of if the individuals responsible were aware of it. The Wagner group is proscribed by the UK government as a terrorist group.