A UK court has sentenced six young British men to lengthy prison terms for carrying out an arson attack and plotting a kidnapping on behalf of Russia’s Wagner Group. The group targeted a London warehouse supplying communications equipment to Ukraine, in what the judge described as a foreign power’s attempt to manipulate vulnerable individuals into acts of “terrorism and sabotage.”
The March 2024 blaze at an east London industrial estate caused about £1.3 million in damage and required 60 firefighters to contain. Investigators later linked the attack to Russia’s paramilitary Wagner Group, which is classified as a terrorist organization in the UK.
Dylan Earl, the 21-year-old ringleader, was sentenced to 23 years 17 in custody and six on licence under the 2023 National Security Act, the first such conviction since the law’s enactment. Co-defendant Jake Reeves received 13 years, while Nii Mensah, Jakeem Rose, and Ugnius Usmena were handed sentences ranging from eight to ten years.
Judge Bobbie Cheema-Grubb noted that Russian operatives had exploited the “greed and base instincts of unsophisticated individuals,” using encrypted online chat rooms to recruit them. The court heard that Earl, a low-level drug dealer, had been radicalized through Telegram communications with Wagner operatives, who promised easy money.
After the arson, the group plotted to kidnap Russian dissident and restaurant owner Evgeny Chichvarkin to secure payment, but police intervened before the plan was carried out.
Security Minister Dan Jarvis said the sentences “send a clear message” that the UK will not tolerate foreign state interference. Prosecutors described the case as part of a broader Russian campaign of sabotage across Europe.
The sentencing underscores growing Western concerns over Moscow’s covert operations and the vulnerability of young, isolated individuals to online radicalization by foreign agents.
