He Won $3.3M, Then Set Up a Huge Pill Mill

An 80-year-old man who once won $3.3 million in the lottery has been sentenced to more than 16 years in prison for helping run what a judge described as one of the largest fake-pill operations ever uncovered by UK police.

A jury at Bolton Crown Court found John Eric Spiby guilty of conspiracy to produce and supply Class C drugs, along with firearms and ammunition offenses and attempting to pervert the course of justice, according to Greater Manchester Police. He was sentenced to 16 years and six months behind bars.

Prosecutors said Spiby led a large-scale drug operation from his “quiet, rural” home near Wigan, where counterfeit diazepam tablets—commonly known as Valium—were produced on an industrial level. Authorities estimated the pills could have been worth as much as $398 million on the street, the Guardian reported.

The court heard that after his lottery win in 2010, Spiby invested heavily in modifying his property and purchasing specialized machinery to manufacture the fake tablets. In one group chat, he reportedly joked that “Elon [Musk] and Jeff [Bezos] best watch their backs.”

Sentencing Spiby, Judge Nicholas Clarke said, “Despite your lottery win, you continued to live a life of crime beyond what would normally have been your retirement years.”

Spiby was one of four men convicted in the case, which police described as an organized crime group involved in both drugs and firearms. His son, John Colin Spiby, 37, was sentenced to nine years in prison. Lee Drury, 45, received a nine-year, nine-month sentence, while Callum Dorian, 35, was sentenced in 2024 to 12 years.

Defense attorney Adam Kent argued that Dorian was the true leader of the operation, citing a message in which Dorian allegedly referred to Spiby as “the guy whose house we use” and noted that he was a millionaire. The judge rejected that claim, stating that Spiby was “senior in both name and role” within the criminal enterprise.

According to the London Times, the group operated behind the cover of a fake company called Nutra Inc., which investigators said was used as a front for the illegal activities, with Drury allegedly running the business on paper.

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