A group of thugs who worked for the Russian mercenary Wagner Group have been jailed for setting fire to a warehouse storing aid to Ukraine, as part of a planned “campaign of terrorism and sabotage".
The arson attack on the industrial units in Leyton, east London, on March 20 2024, caused about £1 million in damage, put lives at risk, and required 60 firefighters to put out.
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 kidnapping 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 ten 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 an 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.
