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Six Britons working on behalf of Russia’s Wagner group have been sentenced to prison for setting fire to a located in London storage unit that was holding relief supplies intended for Ukraine.

Sentencing and Roles

Sentencing the men, the presiding judge at the Old Bailey remarked that they had orchestrated a “campaign of terrorism and sabotage” to benefit the Russian government.

Dylan Earl was given a 17-year prison sentence with an extra six-year period on supervised release due to his “leading role”. Another defendant, Jake Reeves, a resident of Croydon, South London, was given twelve years in jail with an additional year on supervised release. The offences they admitted made them the first individuals to be found guilty under the 2023 National Security Act.

Jakeem Rose, also a Croydon resident, was jailed for a term of eight years and ten months. Nii Mensah, a Thornton Heath, South London local, was given 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 court.

Ashton Evans, a 20-year-old individual involved in drug trafficking hailing from Newport, Gwent, was jailed for nine years imprisonment plus a further year on supervised release after being convicted of withholding details regarding terrorist acts relating to a separate scheme in the Mayfair area.

Incident Specifics

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

The court heard that Earl, 21 and the 24-year-old Reeves did not leave their bedrooms while coordinating the incident for the Wagner group, acting on behalf of the Russian Federation.

The group targeted the storage facility because it was being utilized for providing humanitarian aid and StarLink satellite equipment to Ukraine.

When the identical Ukrainian firm was subjected to an intentional fire ten days afterward in Madrid, investigators from the Metropolitan Police's anti-terror unit assumed control of the probe.

Evidence and Further Plans

When Earl was arrested, police analysis of his cellphone uncovered he had videos of the warehouse fire being started and was in communication with the Wagner group on the Telegram messaging app, via an account with the handles ‘Privet Bot’ and ‘Lucky Strike’.

Some of the messages showed that preliminary surveillance for additional operations, involving arson attacks at a restaurant and wine store in Mayfair belonging to the Russian opposition figure Evgeny Chichvarkin had already taken place. The use of explosives to damage buildings was also deliberated.

Detectives found that the defendant Earl was also raising the possibility of kidnapping the dissident Chichvarkin and “exiling him back to Russia to confront imprisonment”.

The drug dealer from Elmesthorpe in Leicestershire had discussed an additional planned incident in the Czech nation.

In a residence inspection, law enforcement found a Russian flag, more than £20,000 in cash and cocaine with a street value of about £34,000.

Motivations and Judicial Remarks

The court heard 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 social media to recruit disruptors vast distances from Moscow.”

She determined the arson attack had a “link to terrorism” regardless of whether the perpetrators were aware of it. The Wagner organization is banned by the UK government as a terrorist organisation.