Wagner Group operatives have been jailed for an arson attack on an east London warehouse storing aid for Ukraine.
The 20 March 2024 blaze in Leyton was part of a planned “campaign of terrorism and sabotage” for the Russian state.
It caused £1 million damage, endangered lives, and took 60 firefighters to extinguish.
The warehouse was targeted by the terrorist Wagner Group because it was being used to supply humanitarian aid and StarLink satellite equipment to Ukraine.
Afterwards, the architect Dylan Earl set his sights on more “missions”, targeting a restaurant and wine shop in Mayfair and the kidnap of the owner, the wealthy Russian dissident Evgeny Chichvarkin.
The court heard Earl was a member of numerous pro-Russian propaganda channels and was motivated by “simple and ugly greed”.
On Friday, Earl and five other young men were sentenced at the Old Bailey for what the judge described as a “planned campaign of terrorism and sabotage” in the interests of the Russian state.
Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb said: “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 said the arson attack was not an isolated incident, as another warehouse was hit in Spain 10 days later, and Earl had discussed another potential attack in the Czech Republic.
The judge found the arson attack did have a “terrorist connection” regardless of whether or not the perpetrators knew it.
Earl, 21, and fellow organiser Jake Reeves, 24, admitted charges against them, making them the first to be convicted of offences under the National Security Act 2023.
Drug dealer Earl, from Elmesthorpe, Leicestershire, was jailed for 17 years and a further six years on extended licence for his “leading role” in the terrorist activities.
Reeves, from Croydon, south London, was handed 12 years in prison and one year on extended licence.
Jakeem Rose, 23, from Croydon, south London, was jailed for eight years and 10 months, Nii Mensah, 23, from Thornton Heath, south London, was jailed for nine years, and homeless Ugnius Asmena, 21, was jailed for seven years, after they were found guilty of carrying out the aggravated arson following an Old Bailey trial.
They were each handed a further year on extended licence by the judge, who observed the “true price” of what some might see as “easy money”.
Their case was the first to result in convictions of British criminals acting as proxies for the proscribed Wagner Group.
Drug dealer Ashton Evans, 20, from Newport, Gwent, was jailed for nine years plus a further year on extended licence after being found guilty of failing to disclose information about terrorist acts relating to the Mayfair plot.
The court had heard that Earl and Reeves never left their bedrooms as they orchestrated the arson attack for the Wagner Group which was acting on behalf of the Russian Federation.
Earl told a Wagner Group operative whom he met on Telegram that he was keen to carry out a series of “missions”, of which the Leyton fire was to be the first.
In chat, Earl’s contact, Privet Bot, instructed him to watch Cold War spy drama The Americans and use it as a “manual” for his covert mission.
Earl was arrested in a B&Q car park in Hinckley, Leicestershire, and videos of the warehouse fire being started were found on his iPhone.
In a search of his home, police recovered a Russian flag, more than £20,000 in cash and cocaine hydrochloride with a street value of some £34,000.
Evidence on his phone revealed details of a cryptocurrency account holding more than £58,000 and images of bundles of cash estimated to total £175,000.
In mitigation for Earl, Paul Hynes KC said he was “easy meat” for exploitation by the Wagner Group, as he saw the world through the “prism of online gaming”.
Mr Hynes said: “This is not a John le Carre novel. But nevertheless those who would wish the UK and other countries ill will continue to try to latch on to people like Mr Earl.”
For Reeves, Henry Blaxland KC said 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.
The court was told the men tasked by Earl and Reeves to carry out the arson attack in Leyton were “amateurs” motivated by the promise of money they never received..
After the sentencing, Commander Dominic Murphy, head of Counter Terrorism Policing London, said: “This case is a clear example of an organisation linked to the Russian state using ‘proxies’, in this case British men, to carry out very serious criminal activity in this country on their behalf.
“The ringleaders, Earl and Reeves, willingly acted as hostile agents on behalf of the Russian state.
“I am pleased that, working closely with the Crown Prosecution Service, we were able to use the new National Security Act legislation, which meant the severity of Earl and Reeves’s offending was reflected in the charges they faced.”
Frank Ferguson, from the Crown Prosecution Service, said: “This successful prosecution marks a pivotal moment in our national security efforts.
“The National Security Act has given the Crown Prosecution Service and law enforcement agencies the tools to confront emerging threats from hostile states with greater precision and force.”
