Based on a true story
On September 11, 1985, former Lexington police department narcotics officer turned drug smuggler Andrew C. Thornton II was trafficking cocaine from Colombia into the United States. After dropping off a shipment in Blairsville, Georgia, Thornton and an accomplice, Bill Leonard, departed in a self-piloted Cessna 404 Titan. En route, the duo dropped a load of 40 plastic containers of cocaine into the wilderness before abandoning the plane above Knoxville, Tennessee. Allegedly, Thornton was killed when his parachute failed to open. According to the FBI, Thornton dumped his cargo because the load of two men, in addition to the cocaine, was too heavy for the plane to carry.
On December 23, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation reported finding a dead black bear that had eaten a large amount of the cocaine from the jettisoned containers. The containers had held about 75 pounds (34 kilograms) of cocaine, valued at $20 million (equivalent to $54.4 million in 2022), and by the time the scene was studied by government authorities, all of the containers had been ripped open, with their contents scattered. The chief medical examiner from the Georgia State Crime Lab, Dr. Kenneth Alonso, stated that its stomach was "literally packed to the brim with cocaine", although he estimated the bear had absorbed only 3 to 4 grams into its bloodstream at the time of its death.
