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The story of the Cocaine Bear has been turned into a Hollywood movie. And since its February release it's been getting great reviews.

 The film was directed by actress Elizabeth Banks who admits she is worried about her mother seeing the film.

It stars husband-and-wife team, Keri Russell and Matthew Rhys. And popular actor Ray Liotta, had a role in the film. But he sadly died during the production. 

It started in the 1980s

In 1985, a black bear weighing 175 pounds was found dead in northern Georgia next to a ripped-open duffel bag containing 40 empty packets of cocaine.

The cocaine, worth an estimated $15 million, had been dropped from a plane by drug smuggler Andrew Thornton. 

According to the Georgia Bureau of Investigations, Thornton fell to his death when he parachuted out of the plane chasing his cocaine. He “hit his head on the tail of the aircraft” which knocked him unconscious. And unable to open his parachute.

The bear, dubbed the Cocaine Bear, had consumed the cocaine and died from a range of ailments, including heart failure and respiratory failure.

Three months after Thornton’s death the dead bear, and the tenth duffel bag, were found south of the state line between Tennessee and Georgia in the Chattahoochee National Forest.

The Cocaine Bear died but that was only the beginning of the story...

What happened next to the real Cocaine Bear?

After being taxidermized, the bear was donated to the Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area and displayed at a visitor center before being put into storage during a wildfire. 

It was later sold to a pawn shop and purchased by country singer Waylon Jennings. He gave the stuffed bear to a friend in Las Vegas.

After the friend’s death, the bear was sold to Chinese investor Zhu T’ang for $200. Following T’ang's death, in 2012, his widow gave it to “Kentucky for Kentucky.” 

The now stuffed bear has been going under the alias Pablo Eskobear after Columbian drug lord Pablo Escobar. 

And the remains of the real Cocaine Bear are now a popular tourist attraction at the Kentucky Fun Mall in Lexington.

But that may not be the end of the story... In an attempt to acquire Cocaine Bear, Ripley's Believe It or Not! Is negotiating with the Kentucky Mall.

"Name your price!" declared Sabrina Sieck on Ripley's Instagram page.

Sieck explains, "We'd like to give Pablo Escobear (Cocaine Bear) a home and rank among some of history's most famous hibernators."