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A group of six individuals from Britain acting for Russia’s Wagner group have been handed jail terms for igniting a London-based storage unit that was storing humanitarian aid intended for Ukraine.

Court Rulings and Involvement

Sentencing the men, the presiding judge at the Old Bailey stated that they had planned a “series of terrorist and sabotage acts” in the interests of the Russian state.

Dylan Earl was given a seventeen-year jail term with an extra six-year period on extended licence due to his “leading role”. Another defendant, Jake Reeves, from Croydon in south London, was given 12 years in jail with an additional year on extended licence. The offences they admitted resulted in them being the initial persons to be found guilty under the National Security Act 2023.

Jakeem Rose, also a Croydon resident, was sentenced to 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. The trio were each convicted of serious fire-setting and given a further year on extended licence by the court.

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

Details of the Attack

The deliberate fire on a Leyton-based storage facility in East London endangered sixty fire service personnel and resulted in £1m in damage in March of the previous 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, acting on behalf of the Russian government.

The individuals involved selected the warehouse because it was being utilized for providing humanitarian aid and StarLink satellite equipment to Ukraine.

When the same Ukrainian company was subjected to an arson attack ten days afterward in Madrid, detectives from the Met’s counter-terrorism command took over the probe.

Evidence and Further Plans

When Earl was arrested, law enforcement examination of his cellphone revealed 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 usernames ‘Privet Bot account’ and ‘Lucky Strike alias’.

Some of the messages showed that preliminary surveillance for additional operations, involving arson attacks at a restaurant and wine shop in Mayfair district owned by the Russian opposition figure Evgeny Chichvarkin had already taken place. The use of explosives to harm structures was also discussed.

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

The individual involved in narcotics from Elmesthorpe in Leicestershire had discussed an additional planned incident in the Czech Republic.

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

Driving Factors and Court Comments

The proceedings revealed he was a member of numerous channels promoting Russian propaganda and was driven 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 vast distances from Moscow.”

She determined the fire incident had a “terrorist connection” irrespective of if the perpetrators knew it. The Wagner group is proscribed by the UK government as a terrorist group.