Elderly lottery winner constructed a multi-million-pound drug empire even after scooping £2.4m

John Eric Spiby, 80, scooped a £2.4m lottery jackpot and went on to set up a ‘sophisticated’ lab opposite his home in Wigan where he produced fake prescription pills

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An elderly lottery winner built a multi-million-pound drug empire even after scooping £2.4m, a court has heard. John Eric Spiby, 80, was the leader of a huge drugs empire worth up to £288M which centred around his “quiet rural” home in Wigan, Gtr Manchester.

Spiby Senior, who won £2.4m on the National Lottery in 2010, was involved in flooding the North West of England with millions of Etizolam tablets disguised as diazepam, between 2020 and 2022, Bolton Crown Court was told.

Diazepam calms the nervous system to treat anxiety, muscle spasms, seizures, and alcohol withdrawal. It was heard that he also “provided the premises and helped adapt the premises and purchase machinery” worth thousands of pounds to make the drugs.

Spiby denied any knowledge of the conspiracy but after a trial he was convicted by a jury of conspiracy to produce Class C drugs and conspiracy to supply Class C drugs.

He was also found guilty of two counts of possession of firearms, possession of ammunition and perverting the course of justice. He was sentenced to jail for 16 years and six months.

When sentencing Sipby, Judge Clarke told Spiby Senior, said: “Despite your lottery win you continued to live a life of crime beyond what would normally have been your retirement years.”

Three other men who were also part of the organisation Spiby’s son John Colin Spiby, 37, Lee Drury, 45, and Callum Dorrian, 35, have since been found guilty.

Bolton Crown Court heard how Spiby Senior had boasted “Elon and Jeff best watch their backs” in a group chat, in what a senior judge described as the biggest case of its kind.

Prosecutor Emma Clarke said: “The defendants were involved in a conspiracy to manufacture tablets. None of the defendants had a licence or authority to produce drugs for medicinal subscriptions.”

Ms Clarke told the court how plotters were involved in producing counterfeit pills with a street value that could have to run to as much as £288m.

They had first manufactured the drugs at “the stables” at Spiby Senior’s farmhouse home a Lower Green Lane, Astley, just outside Tyldesley, in Wigan, Greater Manchester.

In 2021 the gang then expanded into a second drug lab at an industrial unit on Albion Street in Salford. Ms Clarke told the court how the gang hid their criminal conspiracy behind a front company called Nutra Inc run by Drury, which claimed to be a legitimate business.

But as police kept them under surveillance, they were seen moving large amounts of expensive machinery to the Salford factory. Ms Clarke said that during a group chat in March 2022 the gang had jokingly discussed the name of their business.

During this chat, Spiby Senior boasted “Elon and Jeff best watch their backs”, an apparent reference to billionaires Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos. On one business transaction an associate of the group’s was caught with boxes stuffed with two and a half million tablets.

The court heard how this could have meant that over a two-year period the gang could have moved millions of tablets worth anything between £56M and £288M at street value. The tablets were sold at 65p a piece.

By the time police raided them, the gang had what Ms Clarke called “two sophisticated tablet making factories” in operation. Officers also found two revolvers and ammunition, some of which had ball bearings at the tip, stashed at Spiby Senior’s home.

Ms Clarke said that evidence showed an increase in drug deaths, particularly around the Bury New Road area, linked to the increased availability of drugs like these. She said experts said taking them as a “highly risky form of Russian Roulette for drug users”.

Ms Clarke said each conspirator played a different role, Drury who was “mint with machines” was used for his technical expertise, while Spiby Senior provided premises and cash.

Spiby Junior was used mainly for hands on work, while Dorrian, who used the notorious Enchrochat messaging platform, provided criminal connections.

It was revealed the conspiracy was foiled on April 2, 2022, a ‘significant’ shipment of drugs was primed to be delivered to a hotel in Manchester.

Drury went to meet the driver, who had rented an Enterprise van, but it was intercepted by police. More than 2.5 million tablets were found in the vehicle, with a £7m wholesale value and a £67m street value.

Spiby Senior, who the court heard has a long history of similar crimes that continued even after winning £2.4M on the National Lottery in 2010, denied any knowledge of the conspiracy.

His son Spiby Junior, of Britannia Way Salford, also denied his crimes but was convicted of conspiracy to produce Class C drugs and conspiracy to supply Class C drugs. Drury, of Everton Street, Swinton, confessed to the same two offences part way through his trial.

Dorrian, of Guilford Road, Eccles, had already been dealt with at a previous hearing and sentenced to 12 years in prison.

He said it was “difficult to imagine him directing any of the other three”. But during the case the Honorary Recorder for Bolton Judge Nicholas Clarke KC repeatedly referred to the sheer scale of the criminal operation.

He said he had been led to conclude this was “the largest production of drugs of this nature that has ever been uncovered by the police”. Judge Clarke noted how much of the production centred around Spiby Senior’s home, an “ostensibly rural, quiet area”.

He said that the 80-year-old had been “senior in both name and role” despite not having access to an Enchrochat phone. He said that all three of the men had been at “senior level, effectively border control” in the conspiracy.

Judge Clarke noted again the devastating impact the drugs they flooded the region with had had on the wider community where they were like a “high risk form of Russian Roulette” for users.

He said he agreed with the previous Recorder who had sentenced Dorrian that the “scale was truly horrifying” and that the Class C status of the drugs did not truly do them justice.

Judge Clarke jailed Drury for nine years and nine months, Spiby Junior for nine years and Spiby Senior for 16 years and six months. Spiby Senior briefly looked to the public gallery and mouthed a statement before going down into the cells.

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