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 arson attack did have a ‘terrorist connection’ regardless of whether or not the perpetrators knew it.
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