In an unassuming pocket of Covent Garden, within close proximity to a CafeÌ Nero, a Zara and an Irish pub, is the kind of anonymous office building that barely registers. This is home to Dryad Global, one of the surprising number of private security firms and advisors operating out of London right now. There’s also G4S and Aegis Defence Services — two of the biggest in the world — which share a home, according to Google Maps, in the very same block tucked behind Victoria Station. AKE, meanwhile, is just near London Bridge, and Team Fusion is nestled between the members’ clubs, tailors and car dealerships of Mayfair.
It’s probably not what you think of when you think of private security firms. Yevgeny Prigozhin’s Wagner Group —which, unlike these legally compliant London companies, can be described as mercenaries — is the best-known in the world right now. For a hot minute this summer it was Wagner forces that, allegedly, attempted to stage a coup to overthrow Putin. Because these guys don’t work for him. They work for whoever’s paying them the most.
