What was the real 2016 Miami cash raid about?

In 2016, Miami-Dade Police raided Luis Hernandez-Gonzalez's Miami Lakes home, seizing approximately $24 million in cash hidden in 24 five-gallon buckets behind a false wall, linked to marijuana trafficking and money laundering.

What charges did Luis Hernandez-Gonzalez face and what was his sentence?

Hernandez-Gonzalez was charged with drug trafficking, money laundering, and violating the Bank Secrecy Act; he was federally indicted and sentenced to over five years in prison in 2018, with $18 million forfeited.

How does the Netflix film The Rip adapt this real event?

Directed by Joe Carnahan, The Rip stars Matt Damon and Ben Affleck as narcotics officers based on detective Casiano's operation, dramatizing the raid with added themes of grief, loyalty, and temptation while altering some details.

What was the role of Hernandez-Gonzalez's business in the crime?

He ran The Blossom Experience, a gardening supply store used to sell equipment to marijuana growers and provide cultivation advice, with cash from illegal activities hidden at his home.

When was The Rip released on Netflix?

The Rip was released on Netflix on January 16.

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The Rip: Inside a Record Miami Cash Raid and Its Film Adaptation

The Rip dramatizes a Miami cash seizure and its moral aftermath, turning a real 2016 $24 million drug-stash raid into a grief-tinged Netflix crime thriller.

Overview

A summary of the key points of this story verified across multiple sources.

Based on Miami detective Casiano's real 2016 operation, The Rip stars Matt Damon and Ben Affleck as narcotics officers who uncover an enormous hidden cash stash.

Officers found 24 buckets of bundled $100 bills behind a false wall in a Miami Lakes home; protocol forced them to count the money on site for hours.

The raid followed years of multi-jurisdictional surveillance, wiretaps, and sources; target Luis Hernandez-Gonzalez was later charged, federally indicted and sentenced for financial crimes tied to trafficking.

Writer-director Joe Carnahan adapted the story into The Rip, adding personal grief and altering details while preserving the raid's tense counting-room moral tests about loyalty and temptation.

Critics note Damon and Affleck's chemistry and a taut neo-noir atmosphere, though some reviews criticize thin exposition and an occasionally overlong finale; Netflix released the film Jan. 16.

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Analysis

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Center-leaning sources frame 'The Rip' as a morally ambiguous, flawed genre piece through evaluative language ('B-movie', 'minor and flawed'), selective emphasis on Damon/Affleck and Miami, and structural choices that foreground corruption. The tattoo line is used as source content to encapsulate theme, while editorial choices set the negative tone.

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: In 2016, Miami-Dade Police raided Luis Hernandez-Gonzalez's Miami Lakes home, seizing approximately $24 million in cash hidden in 24 five-gallon buckets behind a false wall, linked to marijuana trafficking and money laundering.
Sources:
True Crime News
: Hernandez-Gonzalez was charged with drug trafficking, money laundering, and violating the Bank Secrecy Act; he was federally indicted and sentenced to over five years in prison in 2018, with $18 million forfeited.
Sources:
WSVN
: Directed by Joe Carnahan, The Rip stars Matt Damon and Ben Affleck as narcotics officers based on detective Casiano's operation, dramatizing the raid with added themes of grief, loyalty, and temptation while altering some details.
Sources:
A&E
: He ran The Blossom Experience, a gardening supply store used to sell equipment to marijuana growers and provide cultivation advice, with cash from illegal activities hidden at his home.
Sources:
A&E
: The Rip was released on Netflix on January 16.
Sources:
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