🔗 Share this article

Six Britons working on behalf of Russia’s Wagner group have been handed jail terms for igniting a located in London warehouse that was storing humanitarian aid intended for Ukraine.

Sentencing and Roles

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

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

Jakeem Rose, aged 23, also from Croydon, was jailed for a term of eight years and ten months. Nii Mensah, 23, from Thornton Heath, south London, was given nine years imprisonment and Ugnius Asmena, who was homeless, was handed seven years in prison. These three individuals were each found guilty of aggravated arson and given a further year on supervised release by the judge.

Ashton Evans individual involved in drug trafficking hailing from Newport, Gwent, was sentenced to nine years with an extra year on supervised release after being found guilty of withholding details regarding terrorist acts connected to a separate scheme in the Mayfair area.

Incident Specifics

The deliberate fire on a Leyton-based storage facility in East London endangered sixty fire service personnel and resulted in one million pounds worth of destruction in March last year.

The court heard that Earl, 21 and the 24-year-old Reeves remained in their residences while organising the attack for the Wagner group, representing 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 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 revealed he had recordings of the storage facility blaze being initiated and was in communication with the Wagner group on the Telegram messaging app, via an user profile with the usernames ‘Privet Bot account’ and ‘Lucky Strike’.

Some of the messages indicated that preliminary surveillance for further “missions”, involving fire-related incidents at a dining establishment and wine store in Mayfair owned by the Russian opposition figure Evgeny Chichvarkin had already been carried out. The use of explosives to damage buildings was also deliberated.

Investigators found that the defendant 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, Leicestershire had talked about an additional planned incident in the Czech Republic.

In a residence inspection, police found a flag of Russia, over twenty thousand pounds in currency and cocaine with a street value of about £34,000.

Driving Factors and Court Comments

The proceedings revealed he was a participant in multiple pro-Russian propaganda channels and was motivated by “plain and severe avarice”.

“This legal matter concerns the attempts by the Russian government to acquire harmful worldwide sway using online platforms to recruit disruptors vast distances from Moscow.”

She found the arson attack had a “terrorist connection” regardless of whether the individuals responsible knew it. The Wagner group is banned by the British authorities as a terrorist organisation.