Elderly man turns $3.3m lottery win into $400m drug empire

• A 65-year-old British man founded a counterfeit drug business on the back of his 2010 lottery win
• The man was finally sentenced when he was 80, with prosecutors reprimanding him for his inability to reform despite the huge lottery win
• Four people were arrested and sentenced in the case

This is the story of one of the most daring lottery winners who leveraged his jackpot windfall to build a counterfeit drug empire that was valued at $400m when he was finally busted.

John Eric Spiby, now 80, and his son, John Colin Spiby, along with two others, are among those arrested by the Greater Manchester Police in northwest England, and subsequently sentenced in 2025.

Like father, like son - empire of crime built as a family affair

Spiby is recognized as the ringleader who has lived a long and full life of criminal enterprise, the court alleged, as this is not his run-in with the law, but is certainly one of the most inspired stories.

After winning $3.3m from the lottery in 2010 when he was 65, Spiby embarked on a life of crime. Spiby and his son were jailed for nearly 50 years. They were found guilty in November 2025, as confirmed by the police.

Their accomplices, Callum Dorian and Lee Ryan Drury, were also found guilty and sentenced to 12 and nine years, respectively. Each had a role to play in the organization.

Spiby, for example, provided the location of the criminal enterprise along with the machinery needed to produce the counterfeit drugs.

Prosecutor Emma Clarke has criticized Spiby for sliding into a further life of crime, even though he could have taken the $3.3m lottery windfall and retired respectfully.

By the time he had won the money, Spiby already had a substantial criminal past.

The British bobbies catch wind of the crime

UK police were tipped off by French law enforcement that originally caught wind of the drug sales on EncroChat, a messaging service in Europe that has earned a fair degree of notoriety because it’s often preferred by criminal types for conducting illicit operations.

Once French police caught wind of the criminal enterprise, they referred it to their British colleagues, who started surveillance in 2020.

Upon executing a warrant, officers were able to seize 2.6m counterfeit pills with an estimated value of about $7m, which allowed them to round up the suspects and dismantle their organization.

In the course of the investigation, police officers were able to determine that the total value of the pills produced by the gang was most likely around $400m.

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