🔗 Share this article A Group of Six Britons Sentenced to Prison for £1m Fire Attack on Storage Facility Holding Aid for Ukraine Six Britons acting for Russia’s Wagner group have been sentenced to prison for setting fire to a located in London warehouse that was holding humanitarian aid destined for Ukraine. Sentencing and Roles Sentencing the men, the judge at the Old Bailey remarked that they had planned a “series of terrorist and sabotage acts” in the interests of the Russian state. The individual named Dylan Earl received a 17-year prison sentence with an additional six years on supervised release due to his “primary involvement”. Jake Reeves, from Croydon in south London, was sentenced to 12 years in prison with one year on supervised release. The offences they admitted made them the first individuals to be found guilty under the 2023 National Security Act. Jakeem Rose, aged 23, also a Croydon resident, 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 and Ugnius Asmena, who was homeless, was handed seven years in prison. These three individuals were each convicted of serious fire-setting and given a additional year on supervised release by the court. Ashton Evans drug dealer from Newport in Gwent, was sentenced to nine years with an extra year on extended licence after being found guilty of failing to disclose details regarding terrorist acts connected to a separate scheme in Mayfair. Incident Specifics The deliberate fire on a warehouse in Leyton, east London put 60 firefighters at risk and caused one million pounds worth of destruction in March last 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 mercenary organization, representing the Russian government. The individuals involved selected the storage facility because it was being utilized for providing humanitarian aid and StarLink satellite equipment to Ukraine. When the identical Ukrainian firm was hit by an arson attack ten days afterward in Madrid, investigators from the Metropolitan Police's anti-terror unit assumed control of the probe. Evidence and Further Plans When Earl was arrested, law enforcement examination of his mobile phone uncovered he had recordings of the storage facility blaze being started and was in contact with the Wagner group on Telegram, via an account with the usernames ‘Privet Bot’ and ‘Lucky Strike alias’. Some of the communications indicated that preliminary surveillance for further “missions”, involving fire-related incidents at a dining establishment and wine store in Mayfair district belonging to the Russian dissident Evgeny Chichvarkin had already been carried out. The use of explosives to damage buildings was also discussed. Detectives discovered that Earl was also raising the potential abduction of the dissident Chichvarkin and “exiling him back to Russia to confront imprisonment”. The drug dealer from Elmesthorpe, Leicestershire had discussed another potential attack in the Czech nation. In a search of his home, police located a Russian flag, over twenty thousand pounds in currency and cocaine with a street value of about £34,000. Motivations and Judicial Remarks The proceedings revealed he was a member of multiple pro-Russian propaganda channels and was driven by “plain and severe avarice”. “This case is about 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 individuals responsible knew it. The Wagner group is proscribed by the UK government as a terrorist group.