🔗 Share this article

A group of six individuals from Britain acting for the Wagner mercenary group linked to Russia have been sentenced to prison for igniting a London-based warehouse that was holding humanitarian aid destined for Ukraine.

Sentencing and Roles

Sentencing the men, the presiding judge at the central criminal court remarked that they had orchestrated 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 extra six-year period on supervised release due to his “leading role”. Another defendant, Jake Reeves, from Croydon in south London, was given twelve years in prison with one year on supervised release. Their admitted crimes made them the first individuals to be found guilty under the 2023 National Security Act.

Jakeem Rose, also a Croydon resident, was sentenced to a term of eight years and ten months. Nii Mensah, from Thornton Heath, south London, was given nine years imprisonment and Ugnius Asmena, who was homeless, was given seven years in prison. The trio were each convicted of aggravated arson and given a additional year on extended licence by the judge.

Ashton Evans, a 20-year-old drug dealer hailing from Newport, Gwent, was sentenced to nine years plus a further year on extended licence after being convicted of withholding details regarding acts of terrorism connected to another plot in the Mayfair area.

Details of the Attack

The arson attack 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 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 Federation.

The individuals involved targeted the warehouse because it was being used to supply humanitarian aid and satellite communication gear to Ukraine.

When the same Ukrainian company was hit by an arson attack 10 days later in Madrid, investigators from the Metropolitan Police's anti-terror unit assumed control of the probe.

Proof and Additional Schemes

When Earl was taken into custody, police analysis of his cellphone revealed he had recordings of the storage facility blaze being started and was in communication with the Wagner organization on the Telegram messaging app, via an account with the handles ‘Privet Bot’ and ‘Lucky Strike’.

Some of the communications indicated that reconnaissance for further “missions”, involving arson attacks 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 found that the defendant Earl was also considering the possibility of kidnapping Chichvarkin and “exiling him back to Russia to confront imprisonment”.

The drug dealer from Elmesthorpe in Leicestershire had talked about another potential attack in the Czech nation.

In a residence inspection, law enforcement found a Russian flag, over twenty thousand pounds in currency and cocaine with a market value of approximately thirty-four thousand pounds.

Motivations and Judicial Remarks

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

“This case is about the efforts of the Russian Federation to gain pernicious global influence using social media to enlist saboteurs vast distances from Moscow.”

She found the arson attack had a “terrorist connection” irrespective of if the individuals responsible knew it. The Wagner organization is proscribed by the UK government as a terrorist group.