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A group of six individuals from Britain acting for Russia’s Wagner group have been handed jail terms for igniting a London-based storage unit that was holding humanitarian aid destined for Ukraine.

Sentencing and Roles

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

Dylan Earl received a seventeen-year jail term with an extra six-year period on extended licence due to his “primary involvement”. Jake Reeves, from Croydon in south London, was given 12 years in jail with an additional year on extended licence. Their admitted crimes resulted in them being the initial persons to be convicted under the 2023 National Security Act.

Jakeem Rose, also from Croydon, was jailed for eight years and 10 months. Nii Mensah, 23, from Thornton Heath, south London, was given nine years imprisonment and Ugnius Asmena, who was without a fixed address, was handed seven years in prison. The trio were each convicted of serious fire-setting and received a additional year on extended licence by the court.

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

Details of the Attack

The deliberate fire on a Leyton-based storage facility in East London put 60 firefighters at risk and resulted in £1m in damage in March last year.

The court heard that the 21-year-old Earl and the 24-year-old Reeves remained in their residences while organising the attack for the Wagner mercenary organization, acting on behalf of the Russian Federation.

The group targeted the storage facility because it was being used to supply emergency relief and StarLink satellite equipment to Ukraine.

When the same Ukrainian company was hit by 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 arrested, law enforcement examination of his cellphone revealed he had recordings 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’.

Some of the communications indicated that preliminary surveillance for further “missions”, involving fire-related incidents at a restaurant and wine shop in Mayfair belonging to the Russian dissident 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 the dissident Chichvarkin and “exiling him back to Russia to face prison”.

The drug dealer from Elmesthorpe, Leicestershire had discussed another potential attack in the Czech Republic.

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

Motivations and Judicial Remarks

The court heard he was a member of multiple pro-Russian propaganda channels and was motivated 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 found the arson attack had a “link to terrorism” irrespective of if the perpetrators were aware of it. The Wagner group is banned by the British authorities as a terrorist group.