More than a fifth of the work of UK counter-terrorism policing is dealing with plots by hostile states, including Russia.
It, along with countries such as China and Iran, uses proxies to carry out crimes in Britain, as the operating environment has become more difficult for spies.
Metropolitan Police counter-terrorism Commander Dominic Murphy said: “More than 20% of our work now in counter-terrorism policing comes from a threat from states, and Russia is one of those states now that, as we’ve seen on a few occasions, have really gone over and above to project a threat into the United Kingdom.
“But in this case, as a result of some of the hard work of us and our intelligence agencies, the hostile operating environment for Russia means, of course, they’ve recruited young criminals to undertake their work on their behalf.”
He said it is common for states to recruit criminals like Dylan Earl to carry out offences on UK soil.
“We are seeing it quite a bit within our case work.
“It says something about the fact that we have made it very difficult for some of these states to operate in a historical way with their own agents and officers here in the United Kingdom.
“One of the things we need to do is make sure that we are continuing to work with our intelligence partners as effectively as possible to identify where they are tasking, often young criminals, to undertake their work on their behalf, so that we can intervene and disrupt their activities.”
The case is the first conviction under the National Security Act, and one of the first cases involving the Wagner Group in the UK, he said.
“It’s important to remember as well that two individuals, Earl and (Jake) Reeves, have both pleaded guilty to national security act offences.
“So this is the first time that we’ve seen the National Security Act used from arrest right through to conviction, and that’s a very significant use of legislation, and should serve as a really important message to anyone who might want to get involved in this type of activity on behalf of a foreign government.”
Earl and Reeves also plotted to set fire to the Hide Restaurant and Hedonism Wines in Mayfair, west London, and plotted to kidnap owner Evgeny Chichvarkin on behalf of the Wagner Group.
Mr Murphy said: “Earl and Reeves were planning other activity involved in attacking other premises, potentially here in Mayfair, and they’d also discussed the potential kidnap for the individual that owned those premises.
“What this action has done is allow us to disrupt that ongoing activity, and as we can see from the seriousness and the scale of the warehouse fire, clearly, these individuals did pose a threat, and this activity has managed to disrupt that.”
