🔗 Share this article

Six Britons acting for the Wagner mercenary group linked to Russia have been sentenced to prison for igniting a London-based storage unit that was holding relief supplies destined for Ukraine.

Sentencing and Roles

Sentencing the men, the 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 17-year jail term with an additional six years on supervised release due to his “leading role”. Another defendant, Jake Reeves, from Croydon in south London, was sentenced to twelve years in jail with one year on extended licence. The offences they admitted made them the first individuals 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 imprisonment and Ugnius Asmena, who was without a fixed address, was given seven years in prison. The trio were each convicted of serious fire-setting and given a additional year on extended licence 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 extended licence after being convicted of failing to disclose information about acts of terrorism relating to a separate scheme in Mayfair.

Details of the Attack

The deliberate fire on a warehouse in Leyton, east London endangered sixty fire service personnel and caused one million pounds worth of destruction in March of the previous year.

The proceedings revealed that the 21-year-old Earl and Reeves, 24 remained in their residences while organising the attack for the Wagner mercenary organization, representing the Russian government.

The group selected the storage facility because it was being used to supply humanitarian aid and StarLink satellite equipment to Ukraine.

When the same Ukrainian company was hit by an arson attack ten days afterward in the Spanish capital, investigators from the Metropolitan Police's anti-terror unit assumed control of the investigation.

Proof and Additional Schemes

When Earl was taken into custody, police analysis of his cellphone revealed he had videos of the storage facility blaze being initiated and was in communication with the Wagner group on the Telegram messaging app, via an user profile with the handles ‘Privet Bot account’ and ‘Lucky Strike’.

Some of the messages showed that preliminary surveillance for additional operations, involving fire-related incidents at a dining establishment and wine shop in Mayfair district owned by the Russian opposition figure Evgeny Chichvarkin had already been carried out. The employment of explosive devices to harm structures was also discussed.

Investigators discovered that the defendant 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, Leicestershire had discussed an additional planned incident in the Czech nation.

In a residence inspection, law enforcement found a flag of Russia, over twenty thousand pounds in currency and cocaine hydrochloride with a street value of approximately thirty-four thousand pounds.

Motivations and Judicial Remarks

The court heard he was a participant in numerous channels promoting Russian propaganda and was driven by “simple and ugly greed”.

“This legal matter concerns the efforts of the Russian Federation to acquire harmful worldwide sway using online platforms to enlist saboteurs vast distances from Moscow.”

She determined the arson attack had a “terrorist connection” irrespective of if the individuals responsible were aware of it. The Wagner organization is banned by the British authorities as a terrorist organisation.