The Cocaine Bear, also known as Pablo Eskobear (sometimes spelled Escobear), was a 175-pound (79-kilogram) American black bear that overdosed on cocaine in 1985. The cocaine had been dropped by drug smugglers in the wilderness in Tennessee, United States. The bear was found dead in northern Georgia and was stuffed and displayed at a mall in Kentucky. It inspired the 2023 action-comedy film, Cocaine Bear.

History

On September 11, 1985, former American narcotics officer and Kentucky-based 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 departed in an auto-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. Thornton was instantly killed in the evacuation when his parachute failed to open. According to the FBI, Thornton dumped his cargo due to the weight being too heavy in-flight.

On December 23, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation reported finding a dead black bear that had eaten the cocaine from the containers. The total amount of cocaine eaten was 75 pounds (34 kilograms), valued at 2 million dollars. 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", though he estimated the bear had absorbed only 3 to 4 grams into its bloodstream at the time of its death.

Dr. Alonso did not want to waste the body of the bear, so he had it taxidermied and gave it to the Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area. However, the bear was lost until it emerged again in a pawn shop. Eventually it made its way to the "Kentucky for Kentucky Fun Mall" in Lexington, Kentucky where it remains to this day.

In popular culture

On March 9, 2021, Universal Pictures announced that a film, Cocaine Bear, was in development. It was also confirmed that the film would be directed by Elizabeth Banks. However, the film takes some liberties, as the real events which occurred between the bear's ingestion of cocaine and its death are not known; notably, the bear did not kill any people, unlike the bear portrayed in the film. The film is scheduled to be released on February 24, 2023.

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