Gang Involved in Arson Attack on London Warehouse for Wagner Group Jailed
A gang involved in a Russian mercenary group-ordered arson attack on a London warehouse providing aid to Ukraine have been jailed.
The attack was carried out at the behest of the Wagner Group – a private military organisation that acts on behalf of the Russian state – and caused around £1m of damage.
Dylan Earl, along with Jake Reeves and four others, were sentenced for espionage, terrorism offences and arson at the Old Bailey on Friday for their involvement.
Earl, 21, admitted planning the arson attack on industrial units in Leyton, east London, in March last year while working under the instruction of the Wagner group, proscribed as a terror group in the UK.
He was jailed for a total of 23 years, of which 17 will be spent in prison and six on extended licence. Reeves was sentenced to 12 years, with a further year on licence.
The court was told Earl, from Elmesthorpe, Leicestershire, and Reeves, 24, from Croydon, south London, targeted the site because it was being used to supply humanitarian aid and StarLink satellite equipment to Ukraine.
He recruited Reeves to help him plot the arson attack. Reeves then recruited his friend Nii Kojo Mensah to carry out the attack.
Mensah recruited his friend Jakeem Rose, while another person, Ugnius Asmena, was also recruited to take part.
It took eight fire crews, with 60 firefighters, to get the fire under control.
‘Planned campaign of terrorism’
The gang had plotted further arson attacks on a restaurant and wine shop in Mayfair, central London and planned the attempted kidnapping of the owner, a wealthy Russian dissident, Evgeny Chichvarkin.
The arson attack was part of a “planned campaign of terrorism and sabotage” in the interests of the Russian state, Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb said in her sentencing remarks at the Old Bailey.
“This case is about the efforts of the Russian Federation to gain pernicious global influence using social media to enlist saboteurs vast distances from Moscow,” she added.
The judge said the arson attack was not an isolated incident, as a warehouse in Spain was hit 10 days later, and Earl has discussed another potential attack in the Czech Republic.
She concluded that the attack had a “terrorist connection”, regardless of whether the perpetrators were aware of that or not.
Earl, who orchestrated the arson attack from his bedroom, told a Wagner Group operative he met on Telegram that he was keen to carry out a series of “missions”, starting with the Leyton fire.
‘Easy meat’ for Wagner Group
Paul Hynes KC, said in mitigation for Earl, said he was “easy meat for the very sophisticated operatives of the Wagner Group acting as proxies for the Russian Federation”.
He described Earl as an “easy puppet in the hands of others” who sought “praise, importance and significance” and saw the world through the “prism of online gaming”.
Henry Blaxland KC said in mitigation for Reeves that the evidence showed “the extent to which the Russian state and agents of the Russian state have managed to penetrate the UK through taking advantage of adolescents buried in their computers”.
He said Reeves’ judgment was “distorted” by his excessive use of the drug ketamine.
Four others jailed
Mensah, 23, from Thornton Heath, Rose, 23, of Croydon, and Asmena, 21, of no fixed address, were convicted of aggravated arson.
Mensah was jailed for 10 years, Rose was jailed for nine years, and Asmena was jailed for eight years and ten months. They were each handed a further year on extended licence by the judge.
Ashton Evans, who helped Earl supply drugs, was also charged as part of the investigation, as social media messages allegedly showed he was both aware of the arson attack and the planned offences in Mayfair.
Evans, of Newport, was found not guilty of the first count – relating to the Leyton arson – but guilty of the second count related to the plot to damage businesses in Mayfair.
