By MES Dispatch staff
The Briefing
• Netflix released the crime thriller The Rip, inspired by a real 2016 Miami-Dade Police raid that uncovered about $22 million in hidden cash.
• The film stars Matt Damon as a Miami-Dade narcotics lieutenant based on real-life officer Chris Casiano.
• In the actual case, Miami-Dade investigators found the cash in a secret attic compartment of a Miami Lakes home.
• The real case led to the arrest and sentencing of Luis Hernandez-Gonzalez on money-laundering charges.
MIAMI, FL — The Netflix crime thriller The Rip was released this month with a storyline rooted in a large cash seizure by Miami-Dade Police in 2016, when officers uncovered approximately $22 million hidden inside a residential property.
The film stars Matt Damon as Lt. Dane Dumars, a character based on then-officer Chris Casiano, who led the Miami-Dade Police Department’s Tactical Narcotics Team during the real investigation.
In the actual case, detectives executed a narcotics raid at a home in Miami Lakes and found millions of dollars stored in buckets within a secret attic compartment, a discovery that marked one of the largest money seizures in department history.
The property owner, Luis Hernandez-Gonzalez, later pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit money laundering in federal court, was sentenced in 2018 to 65 months in prison, and agreed to forfeit more than $18 million.
While the cash discovery is central to both the film and the true event, the movie incorporates fictionalized elements and narrative drama beyond the documented investigation.