The real life Welsh story behind new BBC drama Confessions of a Steroid Gang

Wales Online

a day ago

The real life Welsh story behind new BBC drama Confessions of a Steroid Gang
The series tells the story of father and son Andrew and Macaulay Dodd who ran a million-pound steroid empire from the remote Welsh countryside
A new series tells the story of Macaulay and Andrew Dodd who started one of the UK's biggest steroid empires from a farmhouse in North Wales
(Image: BBC/Double Act Productions)
A new BBC series has revealed how a steroid empire based in Wales was dismantled, partly through a dodgy dog grooming shop set up to launder the money being made. Confessions of a Steroid Gang tells the real life story of Macaulay Dodd and his father Andrew who were jailed after their £1m steroid lab in North Wales was uncovered.
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The three-part series reveals how Macaulay, portrayed by Rhondda-based actor Garin Williams, first became addicted to steroids at 15 in the pursuit to achieve the perfect body before he would go on to cook up £1.2m worth of the Class C drug.
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Although anabolic steroids are a Class C drug, there is an exemption for personal use. For the latest TV and showbiz news sign up to our newsletter
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Struggling with his relationship with his dad following his parents divorce, Macaulay latched onto his older, gym-going brother and his circle of older friends. His trips to the gym soon turned into something darker when he began injecting steroids at 15, becoming addicted to build the perfect body.
His dad, Andrew Dodd, was also struggling. A former Dee estuary fisherman, he was desperate to change his circumstances when he had a chance encounter with a man in the pub who introduced him to the world of steroids.
Hearing that 1.5 million people in the UK were using the drug, he decided to get involved. The pair reconnected when Macauley was 18 and living out his car in Deeside before they moved to St Asaph, where they set up their steroid lab in a remote farmhouse.
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It started as a small scheme in a garden shed but quickly evolved into one of the UK's biggest underground steroid labs, Renvex. The pair were importing the raw ingredients, mainly synthetic testosterone, from China, and formed a network of members of the public who would accept parcels for them without asking questions.
Rhondda-born actor Garin Williams plays Macaulay in Confessions of a Steroid Gang
(Image: BBC)
Speaking on the show, Andrew said: "I didn't really class myself as a criminal. I'd just seen myself as a business owner."
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A police operation in London eventually led to the discovery of a large quantity of steroids in a flat belonging to Terence Murrell, an online dealer who was buying from Renvex. Documents at the home led police to find a payment to a dog grooming business that Andrew and Macauley had set up in Ruthin to launder the money.
North Wales Police closed in on the father and son's operation. They were arrested in a dawn raid and police finally uncovered the lab at the centre of it all.
Andrew said it "felt like a relief at the time", fed up of "deceiving" those around him.
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Both Andrew and Macauley were sentenced to spend five years in prison in 2018. Despite their court-room bust up, they spent their time in prison together, which Macauley said "saved" their relationship.
Including testimony from steroid users, experts and those affected by the culture, Confessions of a Steroid Gang shows how image-obsessed social media, testosterone supplements and a booming black market collided and highlights the health risks of unregulated steroid use and addiction.
Speaking on his involvement in the series, Garin Williams, who played Macauley said it was the "biggest project" he'd been involved in so far. "As an actor, you want to show as much emotion as possible on screen and with this story about Macauley's life I had a great opportunity to do so."
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All three episodes of Confessions of a Steroid Gang are available to watch now on BBC iPlayer.