Six British Citizens Jailed for £1m Fire Attack on Warehouse Containing Ukrainian Humanitarian Aid

A group of six individuals from Britain working on behalf of the Wagner mercenary group linked to Russia have been sentenced to prison for setting fire to a located in London warehouse that was holding relief supplies intended for Ukraine.

Sentencing and Roles

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

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, a resident of Croydon, South London, was given twelve years in prison with an additional year on extended licence. The offences they admitted made them the initial persons to be found guilty under the National Security Act 2023.

Jakeem Rose, also a Croydon resident, was jailed for eight years and 10 months. Nii Mensah, 23, from Thornton Heath, south London, was given nine years and Ugnius Asmena, who was homeless, was given seven years. The trio were each convicted of aggravated arson and given a further year on extended licence by the court.

Ashton Evans, a 20-year-old drug dealer hailing from Newport, Gwent, was sentenced to nine years imprisonment with an extra year on supervised release after being found guilty of withholding details regarding terrorist acts relating to another plot in Mayfair.

Details of the Attack

The deliberate fire on a warehouse in Leyton, east London put 60 firefighters at risk and resulted in £1m in damage in March of the previous year.

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

The individuals involved selected the storage facility because it was being used to supply emergency relief and satellite communication gear to Ukraine.

When the identical Ukrainian firm was hit by an arson attack ten days afterward in Madrid, detectives from the Met’s counter-terrorism command took over the probe.

Proof and Additional Schemes

When Earl was arrested, police analysis of his mobile phone uncovered he had recordings of the warehouse fire 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 reconnaissance for additional operations, involving fire-related incidents at a restaurant and wine store in Mayfair district belonging to the Russian opposition figure Evgeny Chichvarkin had already taken place. The employment of explosive devices to harm structures was also discussed.

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

The drug dealer from Elmesthorpe, Leicestershire had talked about an additional planned incident in the Czech Republic.

In a search of his home, law enforcement found a flag of Russia, more than £20,000 in cash and cocaine with a street value of approximately thirty-four thousand pounds.

Motivations and Judicial Remarks

The court heard he was a member of multiple channels promoting Russian propaganda and was motivated by “plain and severe avarice”.

“This legal matter concerns the attempts by the Russian government to gain pernicious global influence using online platforms to enlist saboteurs far from the Russian capital.”

She determined the arson attack had a “terrorist connection” regardless of whether the perpetrators were aware of it. The Wagner group is proscribed by the UK government as a terrorist organisation.