Imagine winning the £2.4 million National Lottery jackpot. For most, it’s a ticket to a peaceful retirement, perhaps a villa in the sun or a life of leisure. But for John Eric Spiby, a winning ticket in 2010 served as the seed money for a far more sinister venture. Instead of fading into a quiet life in the countryside, the now 80-year-old used his fortune to construct a £288 million drug empire right from the shadow of his rural cottage near Wigan.
A Sophisticated Lab Behind Frosted Windows
The transformation began in the “stables” located directly across from Spiby’s cottage in Greater Manchester. Behind frosted windows designed to shield his secrets from the world, Spiby installed industrial-scale equipment capable of churning out tens of thousands of tablets every single hour.
This wasn’t a small-time operation. Spiby, alongside his son John Colin Spiby and two associates, Lee Drury and Callum Dorrian, built a “sophisticated” network that eventually expanded to a second factory in Salford. They specialized in counterfeit prescription medication, specifically unregulated Diazepam, which they sold for a mere 65p per pill. Between 2020 and 2022 alone, the group poured £200,000 into machinery and ingredients to keep their production lines hummimg.
Hubris and “Russian Roulette”
At the height of his influence, Spiby’s ego seemed as inflated as his bank account. He was known to boast that tech titans like Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos “best watch their backs”.
However, while Spiby was comparing himself to billionaires, the reality on the streets was devastating. Prosecutors noted that as sales of these “unregulated, unlicensed and unchecked” drugs soared, so did the number of drug-related deaths in the area. For the desperate users purchasing these fake pills, every dose was a game of “Russian roulette” with their lives.
The EncroChat Downfall
The empire began to crumble not because of a local slip-up, but through international digital detective work. French law enforcement managed to crack EncroChat, an encrypted messaging platform often described as the “WhatsApp for criminals”.
Police surveillance teams watched as the gang loaded rented vans with millions of tablets destined for Manchester hotels. When the authorities finally closed in, the scale of the operation was laid bare:
- 2.6 million counterfeit tablets were found in a single raid, worth an estimated £5.2 million.
- Officers seized three viable firearms, including automatic weapons and ammunition.
- Significant quantities of cash and raw materials were recovered across multiple properties.
A Life of Crime Beyond Retirement
Despite his advanced age and his previous lottery win, Spiby remained “deeply embedded” in the illicit drug supply chain. During sentencing at Bolton Crown Court, Judge Nicholas Clarke KC remarked that Spiby had chosen to continue a life of crime far beyond what anyone would consider a normal retirement age.
The legal consequences were severe:
- John Eric Spiby (80): Sentenced to 16-and-a-half years for drug offences and conspiracy to possess firearms.
- Lee Drury (45): Sentenced to 9 years and 9 months.
- John Colin Spiby (37): Sentenced to 9 years.
- Callum Dorrian (35): Sentenced to 12 years at a previous hearing.
Detective Inspector Alex Brown of the Greater Manchester Police emphasized that the group showed “absolutely no regard for human life,” driven solely by the desire to line their pockets. In the end, the lottery win that could have changed Spiby’s life for the better only served to fund a legacy of “untold harm” and a very long stay behind bars.
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