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Six Britons acting for Russia’s Wagner group have been sentenced to prison for setting fire to a located in London storage unit that was holding humanitarian aid intended for Ukraine.

Court Rulings and Involvement

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

The individual named Dylan Earl was given a seventeen-year prison sentence with an extra six-year period on extended licence due to his “primary involvement”. Jake Reeves, from Croydon in south London, was given 12 years in prison with one year on supervised release. The offences they admitted made them the first individuals to be convicted under the 2023 National Security Act.

Jakeem Rose, aged 23, also a Croydon resident, was sentenced to eight years and 10 months. Nii Mensah, 23, from Thornton Heath, south London, was given nine years imprisonment and Ugnius Asmena, 21, who was homeless, was handed seven years. These three individuals were each convicted of aggravated arson and received a further year on extended licence by the court.

Ashton Evans, a 20-year-old drug dealer from Newport in Gwent, was sentenced to nine years imprisonment plus a further year on extended licence after being found guilty of failing to disclose details regarding acts of terrorism connected to a separate scheme in the Mayfair area.

Details of the Attack

The deliberate fire on a warehouse in Leyton, 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 organising the attack for the Wagner mercenary organization, acting on behalf of the Russian government.

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

When the same Ukrainian company was hit by an intentional fire ten days afterward in the Spanish capital, investigators from the Metropolitan Police's anti-terror unit assumed control of the investigation.

Proof and Additional Schemes

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

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

Detectives discovered that the defendant Earl was also raising the potential abduction of the dissident Chichvarkin and “exiling him back to Russia to face prison”.

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

In a search of his home, law enforcement located a Russian flag, 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 member of numerous channels promoting Russian propaganda and was motivated by “plain and severe avarice”.

“This legal matter concerns the efforts of the Russian Federation to acquire harmful worldwide sway using social media to enlist saboteurs far from the Russian capital.”

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