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Six Britons working on behalf of the Wagner mercenary group linked to Russia have been handed jail terms for igniting a located in London storage unit that was holding humanitarian aid destined for Ukraine.

Sentencing and Roles

Sentencing the men, the judge at the central criminal court remarked that they had planned a “series of terrorist and sabotage acts” to benefit the Russian government.

Dylan Earl was given a 17-year jail term with an extra six-year period on supervised release due to his “primary involvement”. Another defendant, Jake Reeves, from Croydon in south London, was given 12 years in prison 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, aged 23, also from Croydon, was jailed for a term of eight years and ten months. Nii Mensah, 23, a Thornton Heath, South London local, was sentenced to nine years imprisonment and Ugnius Asmena, who was homeless, was handed seven years. These three individuals were each found guilty 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 extended licence after being convicted of failing to disclose information about acts of terrorism 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 resulted in £1m in damage in March last year.

The court heard that the 21-year-old Earl and the 24-year-old Reeves remained in their residences while coordinating the incident for the Wagner mercenary organization, representing the Russian Federation.

The group selected the storage facility because it was being used to supply 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, detectives from the Met’s counter-terrorism command assumed control of the investigation.

Evidence and Further Plans

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

Some of the messages indicated that reconnaissance for further “missions”, involving fire-related incidents at a restaurant and wine store in Mayfair district owned by the Russian dissident Evgeny Chichvarkin had already been carried out. The use of explosives to harm structures was also deliberated.

Detectives discovered that Earl was also raising the possibility of kidnapping Chichvarkin and “exiling him back to Russia to face prison”.

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

In a residence inspection, law enforcement located a Russian flag, more than £20,000 in cash and cocaine hydrochloride with a street value of approximately thirty-four thousand pounds.

Motivations and Judicial Remarks

The proceedings revealed he was a member of numerous pro-Russian propaganda channels and was motivated by “simple and ugly greed”.

“This case is about the attempts by the Russian government to gain pernicious global influence using social media to enlist saboteurs vast distances from Moscow.”

She determined the arson attack had a “link to terrorism” irrespective of if the individuals responsible knew it. The Wagner organization is banned by the British authorities as a terrorist group.