An elderly lottery winner transformed his rural cottage into a covert operation, manufacturing counterfeit prescription pills valued at an astounding £288 million. John Eric Spiby, who pocketed a £2.4 million National Lottery jackpot in 2010 at the age of 65, leveraged his winnings in an unexpected and illegal manner.

Despite amassing a fortune, Spiby, a man with a notable criminal history, constructed a sophisticated drug lab in the stables across from his cottage near Wigan, Greater Manchester. This clandestine operation came to light during a court hearing, revealing the extent of his illicit activities.

In conversations about his underground empire, Spiby made audacious claims, suggesting that tech moguls Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos should be wary of his burgeoning business. This brash confidence underscored the scale and ambition of his operation.

Spiby wasn’t working alone. Alongside his son and two accomplices, he established a second facility in Salford, aiming to inundate the market with drugs that were unregulated, unlicensed, and unchecked. This reckless distribution posed significant risks to the public, as users unwittingly gambled with their lives.

Prosecutors highlighted the dire consequences of such activities, pointing to a rise in drug-related fatalities in the region. The dangerous game Spiby and his associates played had very real and tragic stakes, affecting countless lives in the community.

Desperate users who bought the pills were playing ‘Russian roulette’ with their lives, prosecutors said, with an increase in drug-related deaths in the area.

However the group were under police surveillance, and when officers finally swooped on a hired van it was found to contain 2.6 million counterfeit Diazepam tablets with a street value of up to £5.2million.

Police raided a string of properties and found three firearms plus ammunition, as well as cash and industrial tablet manufacturing machinery.

Lottery winner John Eric Spiby, 80, ran an ‘industrial’ fake prescription drugs conspiracy from his cottage near Wigan

The millionaire pensioner ran his illicit prescription drugs empire from a secluded cottage (pictured)

An image of a gun which Spiby’s gang shared over encrypted Encrochat messaging

Police found boxes full of counterfeit pills when they raided the gang’s ‘sophisticated’ drug factories

Detectives estimate that the potential street value of the drugs produced by Spiby and his gang ranged from £57.6million to £288million.

Now 80, Spiby Sr denied any knowledge of the conspiracy, but was convicted of drug offences.

Jailing him for 16-and-a-half years on Tuesday, a judge told him he had been ‘senior both in name and role’. 

‘Despite your lottery win, you continued to live your life of crime beyond what would be a normal retirement age,’ the Recorder of Bolton, Judge Nicholas Clarke KC, said.

His son, John Colin Spiby, and associate Lee Drury were jailed for more than 18 years.

Another gang member, Callum Dorrian, 35, was given 12 years at a previous hearing.

Spiby Snr’s lab opposite his cottage had frosted windows to ‘hide’ what was being done inside. 

‘Industrial-scale’ equipment was capable of producing tens of thousands of tablets per hour. 

Spiby’s son, John Colin Spiby, 37, was not ‘just told what to do’ by his millionaire father, a judge said as he jailed him for nine years over the drug conspiracy

Lee Drury, 45, (left) and Callum Dorrian, 35, (right) were both also jailed

Drury used his company, Nutra Inc, as a ‘front’ to cover up the illicit business, Bolton Crown Court heard.

Between June 2020 and May 2022, £200,000 worth of machinery and ingredients were bought, with pills sold for 65p each. 

But the plot was foiled after incriminating messages on encrypted EncroChat exchanges – dubbed WhatsApp for criminals – were cracked by French law enforcement. 

Messages revealed they discussed raw materials and the prospect of moving to synthesising the drugs to maximise their profits.

The recipe for making the drugs was saved on Drury’s phone.

Dorrian’s EncroChat handle Fallensoda was linked to supplying firearms including AK 47s, an Uzi, Tec 9s, a Scorpion, a Grand Power pistol, silencers, and ammunition, police said.

On 1 April 2022, officers observed Dorrian and Drury loading a rented Enterprise van with boxes which were due to be delivered to a hotel in Manchester.

It was intercepted and found to contain more than 2.5 million tablets with an estimated street value of between £1,040,000 and £5,200,000.

On May 17, 2022, officers carried out a number of warrants which resulted in the seizure of three viable firearms, ammunition, cash, and significant quantities of counterfeit tablets and raw materials.

All four men were arrested and remanded into custody. 

Police also seized bundles of cash from the gang’s drug factories

After a trial, Spiby Sr was convicted by a jury of conspiracy to produce and supply Class C drugs.

Jailing him, Judge Clarke said the gang sold pills to people who ‘could not find them through legitimate means’. 

The fake tablets caused ‘untold harm’ to addicts.

He said the group’s driver had shipped around 37.5 million tablets over a 12-month period.

Addressing Spiby Jr, the judge said he did not accept he was ‘just told what to do’.

‘I have no doubt you were consulted about everything in the conspiracy on a daily basis. 

‘You were involved in deliveries, meetings and stock.’ 

He said that would have been guided by his upbringing as being the son of a ‘millionaire criminal father’. 

The judge told the trio: ‘You were all at a senior level as a board of control. 

‘This was a very sophisticated and very significant commercial scale organised conspiracy – you were the source.’ 

Dorrian, of Eccles, was previously given a 12-year sentence for conspiracy to supply firearms and conspiracy to produce and supply Class C drugs.

Quoting the judge on that occasion, he said: ‘What you did created a high risk of Russian Roulette for vulnerable drug users who are unsure whether the drugs were more or less potent that the drugs they were replacing.’ 

Spiby Sr, of Astley, near Wigan, was also convicted of conspiracy to possess a firearm and ammunition with intent to endanger life.

Spiby Jr, 37, of Salford, was jailed for nine years after being convicted of conspiracy to produce Class B and Class C drugs, and conspiracy to supply Class C drugs.

Drury, 45, of Stalybridge, Tameside, who pleaded guilty partway through their trial, was jailed for nine years and nine months for the same offences as Spiby Jr.

Afterwards Detective Inspector Alex Brown, from Greater Manchester Police’s Serious Organised Crime Group, said: ‘These four individuals showed absolutely no regard for human life or public safety. 

‘All they were interested in was lining their own pockets with significant financial gain.

‘They operated a fully industrialised drug‑manufacturing business capable of producing millions of counterfeit tablets containing a highly dangerous substance. 

‘The volume of tablets we recovered – along with the sophisticated machinery – demonstrated how deeply embedded this group was in the illicit drug supply chain.

‘Alongside the drug production, this group was also linked to the supply of a range of deadly firearms, including automatic weapons and ammunition.

‘This potentially deadly combination presented a serious threat to communities not just in Greater Manchester but across the country and beyond.’