Wolfgang Droege

Wolfgang Walter Droege (or Dröge) (25 September 1949 – 13 April 2005) was a German-born Canadian white supremacist, neo-Nazi and founding leader of the Heritage Front. He was killed during a bungled drug deal in 2005.

Biography

Early life Droege was born in Forchheim, Germany. His parents and grandparents had been enthusiastic supporters of the Nazi Party, and Julius Streicher was a friend of the family. Droege and his mother moved to Canada in 1962. In 1967, he moved back to Germany to join the military but was rejected for health reasons, so he returned to Canada and became a Canadian citizen in the early 1970s.

1980s In 1981, Droege helped organize a failed attempt, codenamed "Operation Red Dog", to invade Dominica, overthrow its government, and restore deposed Prime Minister Patrick John to power. According to testimony presented at the trial of Droege and his nine co-conspirators, in exchange for restoring John to power, Droege would have been permitted to use the island as the centre of a drug-refinement and trafficking operation.

The attempted coup went awry after a CFTR radio reporter who had been approached about an "exclusive story" decided to contact the police. Droege was sentenced to a three-year prison sentence for his mercenary activities. As it was launched from New Orleans, this event was derided as the "Bayou of Pigs" fiasco by critics such as Don Andrews.

A book about the plot, by Canadian journalist Stewart Bell, was published in August 2008.

In 1985, he was arrested in Alabama as an illegal alien and charged with cocaine possession, as well as possession of an illegal knife. He served four years of a 13-year sentence. Upon his release from jail in 1989, Droege went to Libya to attend a congress of what became the International Third Position and then returned to Canada to found the Heritage Front.

Associates George Burdi Marc Lemire Paul Fromm Al Overfield Elisa Hategan (later defected and testified against Droege)