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Six Britons acting for the Wagner mercenary group linked to Russia have been handed jail terms 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 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 government.

Dylan Earl received a seventeen-year jail term with an additional six years on extended licence due to his “leading role”. Jake Reeves, a resident of Croydon, South London, was given 12 years in jail with an additional year on supervised release. Their admitted crimes resulted in them being the initial persons to be convicted under the National Security Act 2023.

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 and Ugnius Asmena, who was without a fixed address, was given seven years. The trio were each convicted of serious fire-setting and given a further year on supervised release by the court.

Ashton Evans drug dealer from Newport in Gwent, was sentenced to nine years with an extra year on extended licence after being found guilty 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 Leyton-based storage facility in East London endangered sixty fire service personnel and resulted in £1m in damage 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 group, representing the Russian government.

The group selected the storage facility because it was being utilized for providing humanitarian aid and satellite communication gear to Ukraine.

When the identical Ukrainian firm was subjected to an intentional fire 10 days later in the Spanish capital, investigators from the Metropolitan Police's anti-terror unit took over the probe.

Evidence and Further Plans

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

Some of the messages indicated that reconnaissance for further “missions”, involving arson attacks at a dining establishment and wine shop in Mayfair owned by the Russian dissident Evgeny Chichvarkin had already taken place. The use of explosives to harm structures was also deliberated.

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

The individual involved in narcotics from Elmesthorpe in Leicestershire had talked about another potential attack in the Czech Republic.

In a search of his home, police located a Russian flag, more than £20,000 in cash and cocaine hydrochloride with a market value of about £34,000.

Motivations and Judicial Remarks

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

“This legal matter concerns the attempts by the Russian government to gain pernicious global influence using social media to recruit disruptors vast distances from Moscow.”

She determined the fire incident had a “link to terrorism” irrespective of if the perpetrators were aware of it. The Wagner group is proscribed by the British authorities as a terrorist organisation.