An elderly National Lottery winner set up a drugs lab at his rural cottage, producing fake prescription drugs worth as much as £288 million.
John Eric Spiby – who had a ‘significant’ criminal history – won a £2.4 million jackpot in 2010 when he was 65.
But the millionaire pensioner went on to build a ‘sophisticated’ lab to produce counterfeit medication in ‘stables’ opposite his cottage near Wigan, Greater Manchester, a court heard.
Discussing the illegal business, he bragged, ‘Elon and Jeff best watch their backs’ – an apparent reference to US tech billionaires Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos.
Along with his son and two associates, Spiby set up a second drug factory in Salford to flood the streets with ‘unregulated, unlicensed and unchecked’ drugs.
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 pounced on a hired van, it was found to have 2.6 million counterfeit Diazepam tablets with a street value of up to £5.2 million.
Police raided a string of properties and found three firearms plus ammunition, as well as cash and industrial tablet manufacturing machinery.
Detectives estimate that the potential street value of the drugs produced by Spiby and his gang ranged from £57.6 million to £288 million.
Now 80, Spiby Sr denied any knowledge of the conspiracy, but was convicted of drug crimes.
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 imprisoned for more than 18 years.
Another gang member, Callum Dorrian, 35, was given 12 years at a prior 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.
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 purchased, with pills marketed for 65p each.
But the plot was thwarted after incriminating messages on encrypted EncroChat exchanges – dubbed WhatsApp for criminals – were cracked by French law enforcement.
The man won millions on the lottery, so why did he need more millions? Now he will likely die in prison instead of enjoying the money he had – obviously, he was a silly, greedy man – he had all that money. Still, he wanted to be a criminal, and any remaining assets should be confiscated as proceeds of crime.
This man obviously knew nothing but crime, and when he won the lottery, it just got worse. I mean, how foolish does one have to be? You would think that at his time of life, the only thing on his mind would be sitting on a beach somewhere with loads of women, sipping at a Margarita. Instead, he was boxing up drugs with his son, thinking he was El Chappo.
It seems that good people don’t win, and rotten people who do win become more rotten.
John D Rockefeller, at one point, was asked how much money is enough, and he replied, ‘Just one dollar more, and ask me again.’
This quote reflects his view that there is no end to the pursuit of wealth, as he humorously suggested that asking for just one more dollar would
lead to an ongoing cycle of wanting more. This sentiment is reflected in
various discussions about the greedy nature of the pursuit of money,
indicating that the hunger for more can never really be satisfied.
However, so many lottery winners fritter away their fortune – at least this one had an entrepreneurial spirit.
THE MONTHLY MOSQUITO 