A 31-year-old Swindon man has been charged under the National Security Act with researching drone factory locations in his hometown and planning their sabotage, allegedly on the instructions of a British man fighting for Russia. Joshua Cammidge faces charges of materially assisting a foreign intelligence service and preparing an act of sabotage, according to The i Paper, in a case that connects Wiltshire directly to the war in Ukraine and the reach of Russian military intelligence into Britain.
When High-Stakes Decisions Go Wrong Without a Loss Limit
The Pokeriukas editorial team, which follows the online poker scene and reads its coverage closely, notes that the Cammidge case illustrates a pattern visible well beyond the world of espionage. Cammidge allegedly committed to a course of action — researching sensitive targets, offering intelligence to a foreign power’s representative, and preparing for sabotage — without any apparent reckoning with the catastrophic personal cost that would follow if the plan unravelled. The charges he now faces under the National Security Act are among the most serious available in English law.
That discipline of fixing an honest ceiling on what one stands to lose before committing to anything is, as the team observes, the governing rule in arenas far removed from national security. pokeriukas.com site operates on the same principle: the platform only makes sense for players who have fixed strict loss limits and understood exactly what they can forfeit before they place a stake. The lesson, whether the context is online poker or something with consequences of an altogether different order, is the same. Commit without knowing your ceiling, and the downside is no longer bounded.
“The prosecution case is he knew exactly who he was communicating with and the implications of what he was offering to do.”
Messages, Screenshots, and a Wi-Fi Jammer
Prosecutors allege that Cammidge made initial contact with Aiden Minnis on Facebook before the conversation moved to the Telegram app. Messaging between the two was frequent between 28 August and 3 September. What passed between them, according to the prosecution, was specific and operational.
Cammidge is accused of providing screenshots showing the locations of drone factories in Swindon. He is further alleged to have undertaken physical reconnaissance and to have researched a Wi-Fi jamming device, apparently as part of the preparation for disrupting the facilities identified. Prosecutor Warren Stanier told Westminster Magistrates’ Court that the central subject of the communications was unambiguous: “The essence of communications was locations within the UK of factories that manufactured drones and the sabotage of those factories.”
Aiden Minnis and the Banned GRU Volunteer Corps
Prosecutors allege that the instructions Cammidge received came from Aiden Minnis, a British national believed to be fighting on behalf of the Russian military against Ukraine. Minnis is linked, in the prosecution’s account, to the GRU Volunteer Corps, an organisation that the British Government banned in July alongside two Iran-linked groups under new powers designed to target hostile states and their proxies.
The Corps is not an informal fringe group. Its official statutory listing describes it as “directed and controlled by” Russia’s GRU military intelligence service. The same listing states that the organisation “supports Russian military and intelligence objectives by providing a structure through which the GRU can recruit, organise and deploy volunteer and proxy forces.” The banning order has direct legal consequences for anyone in Britain who interacts with it. Under the law that enacted the ban, it is a criminal offence to support, assist, or receive payment from the organisation.
That legal framework places Cammidge’s alleged conduct squarely within the scope of the National Security Act, irrespective of whether the sabotage itself was ever carried out.
Westminster Magistrates’ Court Hearing and the Old Bailey Date
The case came before Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Thursday, where Warren Stanier opened for the prosecution. Cammidge was not asked to enter a plea. Stanier was direct about the prosecution’s position on his alleged state of mind, telling the court: “The prosecution case is he knew exactly who he was communicating with and the implications of what he was offering to do.”
Cammidge was remanded in custody following the hearing. A further hearing is scheduled at the Old Bailey on 25 September. That date had not yet taken place at the time this story was published. The case remains active, with the more serious proceedings still ahead.
