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A gang who set fire to a London warehouse providing aid to Ukraine – on the orders of Russia’s mercenary Wagner Group – has today been jailed.
Dylan Earl, along with Jake Reeves and four other men, were sentenced for espionage, terrorism offences and arson at the Old Bailey for the attack.
The men put the lives of 60 firefighters at risk and caused an estimated £1 million worth of damages with the arson on industrial units in Leyton last March.
The warehouse was targeted by the terrorist group – previously headed by the late rebel commander Yevgeny Prigozhin – because it was being used to supply humanitarian aid and StarLink satellite equipment to Ukraine.
The judge described it as a ‘planned campaign of terrorism and sabotage’ in the interests of the Russian state.
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.’
Afterward the arson, Earl – described as the architect of the attack – set his sights on more ‘missions’.
The 21-year-old targeted a restaurant in Mayfair and then the kidnap of the owner, the wealthy Russian dissident Evgeny Chichvarkin.
The court heard he was a member of numerous pro-Russian propaganda channels and was motivated by ‘simple and ugly greed’.
Justice Cheema-Grubb told the court that the arson was not an isolated incident.
Another warehouse was hit in Spain 10 days later, and she said that Earl had discussed another potential attack in the Czech Republic.
The judge found the attack did have a ‘terrorist connection’ regardless of whether or not the perpetrators knew it.
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Both Earl and Reeves never left their bedrooms as they orchestrated the arson for Wagner.
Earl told an 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.
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In a search of his home, police found 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 with 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’.
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.
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.’
Charges in full
Earl, 21, from Leicestershire, admitted a National Security Act offence, along with Jake Reeves, 24, from Croydon who was jailed for 12 years. The pair are the first to be convicted of offences under the National Security Act 2023.
The other four men:
Nii Mensah, 23, from Thorton Heath, who streamed the attack, was jailed for 10 years
Jakeem Rose, 23, from Croydon, who set the buildings alight, was jailed for nine years
Ugnius Asmena, 21, of no fixed address, who arranged the getaway car and was there on the night, was jailed for eight years
Ashton Evans, 20, from South Wales, was jailed for nine years failing to tell police what he knew about a planned kidnapping
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