80-year-old lottery winner sentenced for bankrolling $400M drug empire from cottage with son

John Eric Spiby, an 80-year-old man who won the National Lottery in 2010, was sentenced to 16 years in prison in England for running a $400 million drug empire from his cottage with his son and two accomplices. Between November 2021 and May 2022, Spiby equipped his cottage with an industrial-scale tablet manufacturing setup, producing counterfeit diazepam tablets laced with etizolam. The organization, operating under the guise of a lawful business, also facilitated and supplied firearms. His son, John Colin Spiby, 37, was sentenced to nine years. Authorities uncovered the operation after an investigation by the Greater Manchester Police.