
Lottery Windfall Fuels Hidden Industrial Drug Lab in Wigan Cottage
A £2.4m lottery windfall helped pensioner John Spiby secretly run an industrial‑scale diazepam operation from his cottage in Wigan, with a second factory in Salford. Police raids uncovered millions of counterfeit tablets, cash and firearms, leading to multi‑person prison sentences (Spiby jailed for 16 years) as investigators disrupted a large counterfeit drug empire.