The true story of Elizabeth Banks' Cocaine Bear explained | EW.com - Entertainment Weekly News

If you've just seen the bonkers trailer for Cocaine Bear, you might be wondering about that dubious-sounding "inspired by true events" claim that flashes on the screen.

As hinted by the title, Elizabeth Banks's action-comedy tells the story of a black bear who eats several packages of cocaine that had been accidentally airdropped into a Georgia forest in a botched smuggling operation.

Each of the 40 packages reportedly held a kilogram of cocaine, or about 88 pounds in all, valued to be worth as much as $20 million at the time.

As for exactly how millions of dollars worth of cocaine ended up in a national forest, the packages were reportedly the last remains of a shipment that Andrew Thornton, an American narcotics officer, lawyer, and alleged gang leader, had picked up on a smuggling run from Columbia.

After dropping packages of cocaine out of the plane near Blairsville, GA, Thorton put Cessna on autopilot and parachuted out with 77 more pounds of cocaine strapped to his body.