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A group of six individuals from Britain working on behalf of the Wagner mercenary group linked to Russia have been sentenced to prison for igniting a located in London warehouse that was storing relief supplies destined for Ukraine.

Sentencing and Roles

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

Dylan Earl received a 17-year prison sentence with an additional six years on extended licence due to his “primary involvement”. Jake Reeves, a resident of Croydon, South London, was sentenced to 12 years in prison with an additional year on supervised release. The offences they admitted resulted in them being the first individuals to be convicted under the 2023 National Security Act.

Jakeem Rose, aged 23, also a Croydon resident, was sentenced to 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 without a fixed address, 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 judge.

Ashton Evans, a 20-year-old drug dealer hailing from Newport, Gwent, was sentenced to nine years with an extra year on extended licence after being found guilty of failing to disclose information about terrorist acts connected to another plot in Mayfair.

Details of the Attack

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 court heard that Earl, 21 and Reeves, 24 did not leave their bedrooms while coordinating the incident for the Wagner mercenary organization, acting on behalf of the Russian government.

The individuals involved targeted the warehouse 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 probe.

Evidence and Further Plans

When Earl was taken into custody, law enforcement examination of his cellphone uncovered he had recordings of the warehouse fire being started and was in communication with the Wagner group on Telegram, via an account with the usernames ‘Privet Bot’ and ‘Lucky Strike’.

Some of the messages showed that reconnaissance for further “missions”, involving arson attacks at a dining establishment and wine store in Mayfair owned by the Russian dissident Evgeny Chichvarkin had already taken place. The employment of explosive devices to damage buildings was also discussed.

Investigators found that Earl was also considering the possibility of kidnapping Chichvarkin and “exiling him back to Russia to face prison”.

The individual involved in narcotics from Elmesthorpe in Leicestershire had discussed an additional planned incident in the Czech nation.

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

Motivations and Judicial Remarks

The court heard he was a participant in multiple pro-Russian propaganda channels and was driven by “plain and severe avarice”.

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

She determined the arson attack had a “link to terrorism” irrespective of if the perpetrators knew it. The Wagner group is proscribed by the British authorities as a terrorist organisation.