Overview
- Bolton Crown Court jailed John Eric Spiby for 16 years and six months for conspiring to produce and supply Class C drugs, with further convictions for firearms, ammunition and perverting the course of justice.
- His son John Colin Spiby received nine years, Lee Drury was sentenced to nine years and nine months, and associate Callum Dorian had been jailed for 12 years at an earlier hearing.
- Greater Manchester Police’s Operation Venetic surveillance uncovered tablet presses at Spiby’s Astley cottage and a converted Albion Street unit in Swinton producing millions of fake diazepam pills containing etizolam.
- Officers intercepted a van carrying 2.6 million counterfeit tablets on April 1, 2022, then seized three firearms, ammunition, cash and industrial pill‑making machinery in raids on May 17, 2022.
- Investigators said the gang hid behind front company Nutra Inc and used encrypted chats where Spiby boasted about the venture, with potential street‑value estimates ranging from about £57.6m to £288m.