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Six Britons working on behalf of the Wagner mercenary group linked to Russia have been sentenced to prison for setting fire to a located in London storage unit that was holding humanitarian aid destined for Ukraine.

Sentencing and Roles

While delivering the sentences, the judge at the Old Bailey stated that they had planned a “series of terrorist and sabotage acts” in the interests of the Russian government.

The individual named Dylan Earl was given a seventeen-year prison sentence 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 12 years in prison 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, aged 23, also from Croydon, was jailed for eight years and 10 months. Nii Mensah, from Thornton Heath, south London, was given nine years imprisonment and Ugnius Asmena, who was homeless, was given seven years. The trio were each found guilty of aggravated arson and given a additional year on supervised release by the court.

Ashton Evans, a 20-year-old individual involved in drug trafficking from Newport in Gwent, was sentenced to nine years with an extra year on supervised release after being convicted of failing to disclose details regarding terrorist acts relating to a separate scheme in the Mayfair area.

Incident Specifics

The deliberate fire on a warehouse in Leyton, 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 coordinating the incident for the Wagner mercenary organization, representing the Russian government.

The group selected the warehouse because it was being used to supply humanitarian aid and satellite communication gear to Ukraine.

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

Evidence and Further Plans

When Earl was arrested, police analysis of his mobile phone uncovered he had videos of the storage facility blaze 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 alias’.

Some of the messages showed that reconnaissance for further “missions”, 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 employment of explosive devices to damage buildings was also discussed.

Detectives discovered that Earl was also raising the potential abduction of Chichvarkin and “sending him back to Russia to face prison”.

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

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

Driving Factors and Court Comments

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

“This legal matter concerns the efforts of the Russian Federation to acquire harmful worldwide sway using social media to recruit disruptors far from the Russian capital.”

She found the arson attack had a “terrorist connection” regardless of whether the perpetrators were aware of it. The Wagner group is banned by the UK government as a terrorist organisation.