🔗 Share this article

A group of six individuals from Britain acting for Russia’s Wagner group have been sentenced to prison for setting fire to a London-based warehouse 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 orchestrated a “campaign of terrorism and sabotage” in the interests of the Russian state.

Dylan Earl was given a seventeen-year jail term with an extra six-year period on supervised release due to his “primary involvement”. Another defendant, Jake Reeves, a resident of Croydon, South London, was given twelve 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 2023 National Security Act.

Jakeem Rose, also a Croydon resident, was sentenced to eight years and 10 months. Nii Mensah, from Thornton Heath, south London, was sentenced to nine years and Ugnius Asmena, 21, who was homeless, was handed seven years. These three individuals 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 jailed for nine years imprisonment plus a further year on supervised release after being convicted of withholding information about acts of terrorism 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 resulted in £1m in damage in March of the previous year.

The court heard that the 21-year-old Earl and the 24-year-old Reeves did not leave their bedrooms while coordinating the incident for the Wagner mercenary organization, representing the Russian Federation.

The individuals involved selected 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 10 days later in the Spanish capital, investigators from the Metropolitan Police's anti-terror unit assumed control of the investigation.

Evidence and Further Plans

When Earl was arrested, police analysis of his mobile phone revealed he had recordings of the storage facility blaze being initiated and was in communication with the Wagner group on Telegram, via an user profile with the usernames ‘Privet Bot account’ and ‘Lucky Strike’.

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

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

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

In a residence inspection, police found 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 multiple pro-Russian propaganda channels and was motivated by “simple and ugly greed”.

“This case is about the efforts of the Russian Federation to gain pernicious global influence using social media to recruit disruptors far from the Russian capital.”

She determined the fire incident had a “terrorist connection” regardless of whether the perpetrators were aware of it. The Wagner organization is proscribed by the UK government as a terrorist organisation.