A proxy for the terrorist Wagner Group was instructed to use a Cold War drama about KGB spies in the United States as a “manual” for his mission in the UK, a court has heard.
Dylan Earl, 20, has admitted orchestrating an arson attack on an east London warehouse, and plotting to burn down Mayfair businesses and kidnap their Russian dissident owner last year.
On Thursday, jurors at the Old Bailey saw chat between Earl, of Elmesthorpe, Leicestershire, and a Wagner Group contact identified by the handle Privet Bot on Telegram.
The day before the arson attack, Privet Bot instructed Earl to watch the television series The Americans, about KGB agents undercover in the US, “in order to understand work”.
Privet Bot went on: “The idea is like that. You need to organise partisan cells in the country and in Europe and think of a name for your movement. We’ll give you support…
“Watch this series. It will be your manual. You’ll have a source of funding through organising arsons.”
The court has heard how Earl allegedly roped in Jake Reeves, 23, from Croydon, south London, to help recruit people to carry out the arson attack on the warehouse.
Earl also revealed his plans to Ashton Evans 20, from Newport, Gwent, on Signal, Snapchat and mobile phone messages, it is alleged.
They had initially communicated about drug dealing, with Earl adopting the name of a notorious Russian “hitman”, the court was told.
Evans was allegedly aware that Earl had orchestrated the warehouse arson attack.
Three days after the fire, which caused £1 million of damage, Evans asked: “Did you light it up?” the court was told.
They went on to discuss the plot to burn down Hide restaurant and Hedonism wine shop in Mayfair, snatch the owner and hand him over to Russia.
Earl warned there would be a “good amount of heat after this” and it would be “on every news channel and radio in our country”.
Evans allegedly replied: “Yes, I can sort if there is a way we can do so without people getting hurt cause that’s when the police will take very very serious – like t***or (terror) level serious.”
Stressing the need for security, Earl told him: “It will be a huge thing and every single spy agency trying to find who did it so careful ok.”
Evans agreed that it would “bring a lot of attention MI5 etc”, the court heard.
On April 1 2024, Earl asked Evans to delete their chats and asked if he could make connections with the IRA or the Irish Kinahan crime family.
Earl suggested he wanted to “build a link” between the Kinahans and Russia, saying: “We have direct connection to the Kremlin, we can do suin (something) big.”
After his arrest, Evans claimed he did not take the chat seriously, having jokingly told Earl: “And this is all in mine craft, right?”
He also claimed in a police interview that he was just stringing Earl along to get a refund for £300 of fake cocaine he had bought, the court was told.
Earl and Reeves have pleaded guilty to aggravated arson of the east London warehouse and an offence under the National Security Act.
The court was told that Reeves had revealed details of their plans to another contact, Dmirjus Paulauskas, having described Earl as “Russian mafia”.
On the kidnap plot, Reeves allegedly told Paulauskas that the idea was to “get him sent back to Russia for imprisonment”.
Paulauskas, 23, from Croydon, allegedly responded to Wagner Group activity on UK soil with glee, saying: “I’m so f****** gassed cos that means the west has already lost..we have already infiltrated..bro u r allowed to call urself Russian now (sic).”
The defendant, who was later to claim that he took none of it seriously, allegedly responded to the warehouse attack by saying: “Holy f*** so Wagner literally has UK gangs doing their work..”
Shortly before their arrests, the men pondered why Earl – “the Russian guy” – had not been on Snapchat for five days.
Paulaskas suggested he was busy in his job “sabotaging UK”.
Prosecutor Duncan Penny KC told jurors that by then Earl had been in custody for nine days.
He said: “The position is clear: Reeves told Mr Paulauskas about the plan to kidnap the target, who had sent money to Ukraine and who was to be sent back to Russia, and about the fact that the attack on the east London warehouse.”
Mr Penny added that the realisation there was foreign interference by the Wagner group on British soil through the use of “UK criminals as proxies”, seemed to have been a matter of “quite some pleasure” to Paulauskas.
Evans and Paulauskas have each denied two charges of failing to disclose information about terrorist acts, which they deny.
Jakeem Rose, 23, from Croydon, Ugnius Asmena, 20, of no fixed address, Nii Mensah, 23, of Thornton Heath, south London, and Paul English, 61, of Roehampton, south-west London, have denied aggravated arson relating to the warehouse fire.
The Old Bailey trial continues.
