The downfall of Gold Coast drug kingpin Dino Spizzirri Dino Spizzirri, the godfather of the Glitter Strip. THE downfall of one of the Gold Coast's most significant organised crime players went by virtually unnoticed because his jailing took place the same month as the Newman government declared its war on bikies. The Sunday Mail can reveal veteran drug kingpin Dino Spizzirri, reputed "Godfather" of the Glitter Strip, was sentenced to six years prison over a methylamphetamine manufacture ring on October 24. The jailing of a man regarded as one of the biggest drug dealers in Queensland history went by unreported at a time when arrests of bikies with as little as a vial of steroids made nightly news bulletins. Spizzirri boasts a McMansion worthy of The Sopranos and a working knowledge of chemistry straight out of Breaking Bad. But in the twilight years of a relatively charmed criminal career, prison time is an unwelcome twist for a real life drug boss. Caught literally elbow deep in a meth cook, Spizzirri will likely serve only two years - an outcome lawyers agree is fortunate for a man with a longstanding police target on his head. But at 57 and suffering from diabetes, crook shoulders and a suspect ticker, Spizzirri will do time tougher than most. Worse, the patriarch's downfall has put the family fortune in the firing line, with a Commonwealth confiscation bid hitting the courts again in mid-2014. The government wants everything from properties in close relatives' names to his Harley-Davidson, his '57 Chevy and his palatial Maudsland residence set on the street named after his second wife. The Spizzirrii mansion at Maudsland on the Gold Coast. Spizzirri, who left school at 13 to become a bricklayer and claims to have been one ever since, maintains he built the home himself, with its six metre ceilings, fountain, and a main bedroom bigger than many houses. Ironically he saved it from being swallowed by a four-lane highway in 2007 when he got then state MP, Phil Gray to lobby Main Roads on his behalf. This was "a victory for the average battler," Spizzirri said. Those in the underworld know him better as a figure not to be trifled with. Weapons have been a routine find Chez Spizzirri, including one police found stashed in a vacuum cleaner. His fearsome reputation that prompted a luxury car dealer in 2005 ask him to have a business partner killed. Police recorded Spizzirri warning the victim of the proposed hit, which was never carried out. A decade earlier, Spizzirri pulled a handgun on a Tongan teenager at a party on Brisbane's south side. The Spizzirri house After pointing it at the youth's head, Spizzirri put a bullet in his thigh. To authorities, Spizzirri has long been the big fish that got away lightly. His reputation as the biggest drug dealer in Queensland history began with his link to the Barrow amphetamine syndicate, which gave local police the world's biggest speed bust in Newstead in 1995. A supergrass fingered Spizzirri as the biggest distributor of the ring, accusing him of having paid $10 million cash upfront for 50kg to sell in Perth. But after putting most of the ring away, the star witness called it quits and Spizzirri never saw a jury. He then did time trying to buy speed in Melbourne - but only served a few years as his pursuers, the Victorian drug squad, were waylaid by a corruption scandal that put cops in jail and witnesses to flight. Back on the Gold Coast in 2001, police found Dino fleeing the house with 1.9kg of speed. He jumped the back fence before finding a copper's Glock trained at his head. He served a year. For an underworld figure, Spizzirri did not shy away from the limelight. Dino Spizzirri attending a court hearing. In 2008, he shared with a national newspaper intimate details of his experience of experimental stem cell therapy for a shinbone broken in a motorcycle accident years earlier. His brushes with the media also included his slapping a TV reporter in the face and stealing her car keys as she was covering a drug raid. Dino Spizzirri lived a palatial lifestyle.