Wolfgang Droege

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Wolfgang Droege
Gunshot wounds
Known forFounder of the Heritage Front

Wolfgang Walter Droege (or Dröge) (25 September 1949 – 13 April 2005) was a German-born Canadian

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. He then returned to Canada and became a Canadian citizen in the early 1970s.[1]

1970s

Droege became interested in

one law for all" and "equal rights for everyone" slogans.[2]

1980s

In 1981, Droege helped organize a failed attempt, codenamed "Operation Red Dog", to invade Dominica and 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.[1]

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.[2]

1990s

In 1992, Droege's connections with racist organizations led to his expulsion from the

Al Overfield
. After losing his job, he returned to cigarette and drug trafficking as well as auto theft.

Droege ran for

Scarborough city council in the 1994 municipal elections, receiving 802 votes in a two-person contest. In 1998, he pleaded guilty to possession of a stolen car
.

2000s

Droege's fifty-fifth birthday party was held at

Jack Astor's restaurant in Etobicoke, Ontario, just weeks after the same restaurant was the site of a confrontation between Anti-Racist Action and supporters of Ernst Zündel.[2]

Droege was found shot to death on 13 April 2005 in the hallway of his lowrise

Scarborough, Ontario, outside of his door. The gunman, Keith Deroux, had approached him to purchase cocaine. Deroux shot Droege in the throat, and panicked before shooting him in the head. On 16 June 2006, Deroux pleaded guilty to manslaughter and was sentenced to ten years in prison. According to an agreed statement of facts read out in court, Deroux was an alcoholic with paranoid delusions.[3]

Associates

See also

References

  1. ^ a b Bayou of Pigs: The True Story of an Audacious Plot to Turn a Tropical Island into a Criminal Paradise, by Stewart Bell, John Wiley&Sons, 2008.
  2. ^ a b c Reporter, Jennifer Yang Identity and Inequality (9 April 2017). "Decades later, CSIS's white supremacy infiltrator tells his story". Toronto Star. Retrieved 22 December 2023.
  3. ^ "Wolfgang Droege White Supremacist who Tried to Overthrow Dominica's Government is Shot to Death", The Dominican, Tuesday 5 April 2005

External links

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