Two years for man tied to Devil’s Ghosts gang

A man who was arrested as part of a police crackdown on a Hells Angels puppet gang while it was based in the West Island was sentenced to a two-year prison term Monday after admitting he was in possession of the bulk of the drugs seized in the operation.

Dean Madden, 54, of Wentworth Nord, appeared before Quebec Court Judge Joëlle Roy at the Montreal courthouse where he pleaded guilty to being in possession of two prohibited firearms, including a semi-automatic pistol, as well as 50 kilograms of hashish. The hashish was seized from Madden’s home in the Laurentians in March 2015 as part of an investigation that targeted members of the Devil’s Ghosts, a Hells Angels affiliate gang that had a clubhouse based in Pointe-Claire in 2015.

Prosecutor Éric De Champlain told Roy that Madden was not a target of the investigation but during surveillance on two men who were — David Castelli, 47, of St-Lazare, and David Manneh, 38, of Beaconsfield — police noticed Madden took possession of a large box of what investigators assumed was hashish. When Madden and six other people were arrested in the investigation, the police announced they had seized 70 kilograms of hashish in all.

Based on a joint recommendation from De Champlain and Madden’s lawyer, Roy agreed to sentence Madden to a prison term of two years less one day to be followed by three years of probation. Madden handed over a red gym bag to a special constable and was taken into custody. He had been granted bail a month after he was arrested in 2015.

De Champlain then told Roy the Crown would withdraw similar charges filed against Madden’s 51-yearold wife in the same case.

The prosecutor also announced Madden’s guilty plea closed the books on the case involving the Devil’s Ghosts. The case made headlines in 2015 as it was one of the first signs the Hells Angels had returned to using affiliate clubs as a means to recruit new members since Quebec’s biker gang war, a conflict that ran between 1994 and 2002 and resulted in the deaths of more than 160 people.

On June 16, Castelli, the alleged leader of the Devil’s Ghosts’ chapter based in Pointe-Claire, pleaded guilty to possession of a prohibited firearm and to possessing the same hashish that was found at Madden’s home. Castelli was sentenced to three years of probation and was fined $2,500.

Manneh, who was described as a member of the Devil’s Ghosts during Castelli’s bail hearing in 2015, is serving a 30-month prison term he received on June 16 after he also pleaded guilty to being in possession of the 50 kilograms of hashish as well as a loaded firearm.

Charges filed against a 43-year-old man who was alleged to be a member of the Devil’s Ghosts were withdrawn on June 22, 2016.