In 1985, a black bear tragically fell victim to a drug scheme gone awry, having consumed cocaine discarded by narcotics runner Andrew Thornton in a Kentucky forest. Share Article Share Article Facebook X LinkedIn Reddit Bluesky Email Copy Link Link copied Bookmark Comments
In a disastrous drug trafficking venture, a 200-pound black bear became the sorrowful victim of an airplane’s stash of top-tier Colombian cocaine.
Airing on Channel 4 at 9.30pm this evening, Cocaine Bear recounts the genuine story of a black bear’s manic final hours. “Its insides were positively brimming with cocaine.
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“No mammal alive could have made it through that,” clarified the coroner who conducted the bear’s autopsy.
“Brain hemorrhages, respiratory arrest, hyperthermia, kidney failure, cardiac arrest, stroke. You name it, that bear suffered it,” he relayed toKentucky for Kentucky. Given the nicknames Pablo EskoBear or Snow Bear, the immense animal devoured 90 pounds of unadulterated cocaine – and even now, tourists still gather to observe its conserved body at a Kentucky Fun Mall.
During the “Bluegrass Conspiracy” era of 1985 – titled after Sally Denton’s publication – Andrew Thornton, formerly a narcotics officer turned drug peddler, bailed out of an aircraft while in flight over the United States.
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Thornton had been executing a narcotics smuggling operation from Colombia and had concealed 40 plastic receptacles packed with cocaine throughout Chattahoochee National Forest, as per the Mirror.
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In an unfortunate turn for Thornton, his parachute became entangled, leading him to plummet to his demise in Knoxville, Tennessee.
When officials followed his trail through the wooded area, they anticipated uncovering a narcotics cache valued at $15 million (£11 million). Instead, law enforcement discovered 40 opened containers alongside a deceased black bear.
Inspectors uncovered no indication of intimidating or damaging actions from the cocaine-intoxicated bear prior to its death.
It is thought that nobody made off with the remaining portion of Thornton’s smuggled contraband – the bear had only consumed a fraction of the total.
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Following the autopsy, the creature was taxidermied and passed through a number of owners, allegedly including country and western artist Waylon Jennings.
Kentucky for Kentucky, a regional enterprise, traced the bear’s whereabouts across the country. By the time they located it, the creature had been lifeless for a month.
The duo stationed it at the Kentucky Fun Mall in north Lexington, where it remains on display today.
However, the bear was likely not the lone casualty of Thornton’s narcotics operations.
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Indeed, detectives discovered numerous additional duffel bags laden with narcotics that Thornton had scattered across rural Georgia and Tennessee before his passing in 1985.
Subsequent to his death, it came to light that Thornton and his associates had smuggled 880 pounds of cocaine into the US.