During the 1970s in Lexington, Kentucky Andrew Carter Thornton, II was living his best life. He was a police officer for the Lexington Police Department, he joined their Narcotics Division when it was formed, he held a degree in law enforcement and he was a lawyer. In the early 1980s, he quit the PD and went into private security with a friend of his. It wasn't long after that that his drug smuggling ways would come to light. In September of 1985, while coming back from Colombia with a load of cocaine, he would dump some of the cargo over the Chattahoochee National Forest before setting the plane to autopilot to crash in the mountains of North Carolina and jumping out over Knoxville, Tennessee. His body was found in a driveway the next morning, and some of the dumped cargo would be located the following December, along with the carcass of the bear that ingested some of the cocaine before it died of an overdose.

Sources for this episode:
Lexington Herald Leader - Who was Andre Thornton, Ky. officer whose drug smuggling plays a role in 'Cocaine Bear'?
Washington Post - Drew Thornton's Last Adventure
Knox News - 'Cocaine Bear' tells a wild story, and Knoxville plays a role
The Bluegrass Conspiracy by Sally Denton
KYforKY - Meet Our New Mascot: Cocaine Bear
Investigation Discovery - 5 Things To Know About Drug Officer Andrew Thornton And The Real Story Of The 'Cocaine Bear'
New York Times - The Real Story of 'Cocaine Bear'
Independent - Cocaine Bear: True story of infamous bear who consumed duffel bag of cocaine and got Hollywood treatment
WAVE3 - 'Cocaine Bear' at Lexington store is not the real bear; sources confirmSupport the show