Think Deliverance was a good North Georgia movie?

[Wildcat Will]

FANNIN COUNTY, Ga. — The premise of “Cocaine Bear” sounds like something only Hollywood could come up with: A black bear consumes a large amount of cocaine dropped into a forest and chaos and bloodshed ensues.

With the exception of a few creative liberties, the movie that hits theaters this weekend is based on true events right here in north Georgia.

In December 1985, agents with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation did get a call about a dead bear in Fannin County area of Chattahoochee National Forest, the AP reported. Authorities found a empty duffel bag that they believed to have contained cocaine at some point.

″The bear got to it before we could, and tore the duffel bag open, got some cocaine and OD’d (overdosed),″ GBI agent Gary Garner said in 1985. ″There’s nothing left but bones and a big hide.” 

Investigators said they believed the drugs were connected to Andrew Thornton, who attempted a smuggling operation. The 40-year-old was carrying 77 pounds of the drugs when he parachuted out of a plane and fell to his death in Knoxville, Tennessee, the AP reported.

The plane crashed in North Carolina. Several clothing items, maps of Jamaica and a pilot’s logbook matching the plane’s number were found in Butts County.