"Cocaine Bear Review: The Wild True Story of a Drug-Smuggling Bear in the Mountains"
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In 1985, a drug smuggler named Andrew C. Thornton II parachuted from a plane in an attempt to smuggle $15 million worth of Colombian cocaine into the United States, but he died when he opened his parachute too late.
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During the drug run, Thornton was forced to dump about 200 pounds of cocaine by parachute over Georgia, and a black bear consumed it and later died of an overdose.
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A new movie, "Cocaine Bear," is a dark comedy inspired by these events, in which a 500-pound American black bear goes on a killing spree in Georgia after consuming cocaine.
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The movie has been highly anticipated by moviegoers, with the trailer receiving over 16 million views on YouTube.
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The screenplay writer, Jimmy Warden, was initially drawn to Thornton and the circumstances surrounding his death, which he describes as the perfect setup for the film.
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Thornton was a Kentucky blue blood who had been a narcotics officer and thought he had found his calling as the leader of a local drug-smuggling ring.
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He lived a privileged life and was a paratrooper for the 82nd Airborne Division at Fort Bragg, N.C. before he turned to drug smuggling.
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Thornton became increasingly paranoid and resigned from the police department in 1977 to join a smuggling ring in Kentucky linked to a larger group called "The Company."
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He was among the 25 people accused of stealing weapons from the China Lake Naval Weapons Center in Fresno, Calif., and conspiring to smuggle 1,000 pounds of marijuana into the United States to be traded for drugs in Colombia in 1981.
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Thornton's life and death reveal what author Sally Denton described as "the dark side of the American Dream."
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