Police raided several properties and found three firearms and ammunition, as well as cash and machinery for manufacturing pills. The 80-year-old father of Sippee had a criminal record but denied any knowledge of the conspiracy. However, as sales of counterfeit drugs increased, so did the number of drug-related deaths in the area, as desperate users risked their lives, according to prosecutors. The group's success caught the attention of police, who formed a surveillance team after discovering messages incriminating them on an app known as 'Criminals' WhatsApp'. When police raided a rented truck, they found 2.6 million counterfeit diazepam tablets with a street value of £5.2 million. As he passed sentence, Judge Nicholas Clarke said: 'Despite winning the lottery, you continued a life of crime even after reaching retirement age.' The BBC reported that his son, John Colin Sippee, and his partner Lee Drury were sentenced to more than 18 years in prison. At a previous hearing, another gang member, 35-year-old Calum Dorian, was sentenced to 12 years in prison. An elderly lottery winner, who won £2.4 million ($3.29 million), used his prize to build a profitable drug empire by manufacturing fake pills from his rural home. In 2010, John Eric Sippee, then 65, used his winnings to build a drug lab in 'stables' next to his rural home near Wigan, Greater Manchester. Sippee used these facilities to build a 'sophisticated' drug lab, with an estimated street value of around £288 million ($394 million). He then expanded his empire with the help of his son and two partners, building a second drug factory in Salford, flooding the streets with 'unregulated and unlicensed' medicines, as stated in court. At the height of his power, Sippee boasted that American tech billionaires Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos 'should watch out'. However, he was recently convicted of drug-related charges and sentenced to 16 years in prison.
