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Six Britons acting for Russia’s Wagner group have been handed jail terms for igniting a London-based warehouse that was storing humanitarian aid intended for Ukraine.

Sentencing and Roles

Sentencing the men, the judge at the Old Bailey stated that they had planned a “campaign of terrorism and sabotage” to benefit the Russian state.

Dylan Earl was given a 17-year jail term with an additional six years on extended licence due to his “leading role”. Another defendant, Jake Reeves, from Croydon in south London, was given twelve years in jail with one year on extended licence. The offences they admitted made them the first individuals 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 sentenced to nine years imprisonment and Ugnius Asmena, who was without a fixed address, was handed seven years. These three individuals were each found guilty of aggravated arson and given a further year on supervised release by the court.

Ashton Evans, a 20-year-old individual involved in drug trafficking from Newport in Gwent, was sentenced to nine years plus a further year on supervised release after being found guilty of withholding details regarding terrorist acts connected to a separate scheme in Mayfair.

Incident Specifics

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

The proceedings revealed that the 21-year-old Earl and Reeves, 24 remained in their residences while coordinating the incident for the Wagner mercenary organization, acting on behalf of the Russian government.

The group targeted the storage facility because it was being utilized for providing 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 took over the probe.

Proof and Additional Schemes

When Earl was arrested, law enforcement examination of his mobile phone uncovered he had videos of the warehouse fire being started and was in contact with the Wagner group on the Telegram messaging app, via an account with the usernames ‘Privet Bot account’ and ‘Lucky Strike’.

Some of the messages indicated that preliminary surveillance for further “missions”, involving arson attacks at a restaurant and wine shop in Mayfair belonging to the Russian opposition figure Evgeny Chichvarkin had already been carried out. The use of explosives to damage buildings was also deliberated.

Detectives found that Earl was also raising the potential abduction of the dissident Chichvarkin and “sending him back to Russia to confront imprisonment”.

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

In a search of his home, law enforcement found a flag of Russia, over twenty thousand pounds in currency and cocaine hydrochloride with a street value of approximately thirty-four thousand pounds.

Motivations and Judicial Remarks

The court heard he was a participant in numerous 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 recruit disruptors far from the Russian capital.”

She determined the fire incident had a “terrorist connection” regardless of whether the individuals responsible knew it. The Wagner organization is banned by the UK government as a terrorist group.