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April 13 (UPI) -- Cocaine, bears, and a policeman-turned-lawyer-turned-drug smuggler come together in a new documentary based on the true story behind the movie Cocaine Bear. In the trailer for the documentary Cocaine Bear: The True Story coming to Peacock on Friday, the story of smuggler Drew Thornton is told more comprehensively than before.
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But there's humor as well, as a group of interviewees is shown saying "cocaine bear" incredulously at the start of the trailer.
There are scenes of a taxidermied bear, who represents the ill-fated bear who came upon bundles of cocaine dropped from an airplane in a doomed attempt to hide the contraband for distribution later.
The movie Cocaine Bear, which was released in February is the gory, fictionalized story of true events that happened in 1985 when Drew Thornton was found dead, tangled in a parachute in a Knoxville, Tennessee, man's backyard.
As UPI reported, Thornton was a smuggler who was trying to parachute from a plane with 79 pounds of cocaine strapped to his body. Instead, he met his fate in a backyard wearing Gucci loafers.
Unfortunately, for an unsuspecting bear, Thornton successfully dropped cocaine in the Georgia forest in order to retrieve it later. A bear happened upon it and ingested it, ultimately dying because of it. In the movie version, the bear goes rogue, attacking people in a coke-fueled rage, but in real life, he died an unpleasant death.
The documentary delves more into Thornton's life from his blueblood background to becoming the leader of a mysterious drug smuggling ring called The Company and how he ended up in that backyard.
"It has corruption, murder, gun-running, you name it," says one of the documentary's experts. "You would never believe this happened," says another.
Cocaine Bear: The Real Story streams on Peacock starting on Friday. The movie debuts on the streamer on Friday as well.
