For nearly a decade, Luis Hernandez-Gonzalez ran a popular gardening supply store in Miami that was frequented by pot growers. He sold equipment for legal—and illegal—plant growing.
His business became so popular that he hid $22 million—mostly in bundles of $100 bills and in heat-sealed bags stuffed in two dozen five-gallon buckets—in a secret room off the attic in his home because he didn’t report it to the government.
Then his business came crashing down in 2016 after a Miami police investigation led officers to raiding his store and his Miami Lakes home and uncovering his hidden cash. It was the largest cash forfeiture by Miami police.
Hernandez-Gonzalez was arrested and accused of violating the federal Bank Secrecy Act by laundering millions of dollars he made through his business. He was sentenced by a Miami judge in 2018 to just over five years in prison for making more than a dozen illegal transactions in an attempt to hide money from the federal government, according to court documents.
The Miami Herald reported at the time that defense lawyers argued Hernandez-Gonzalez was a “brilliant businessman forced into financial shenanigans because banks would not accept cash from businesses linked to the marijuana industry.”
"He was a victim of his own success. He made so much money. So much of it was cash that he couldn't end up putting it into the banks," defense lawyer Philip Reizenstein told the paper.
A decade later, Smokin’ Aces director Joe Carnahan is using Hernandez-Gonzalez’s story as inspiration for his new action thriller, The Rip. Carnahan told GQ magazine that his friend was part of the Miami Tactical Narcotics division, which sparked the idea.
The movie, which stars Ben Affleck and Matt Damon, follows a team of Miami cops who find millions of dollars stashed in a house, “leading to distrust as outsiders learn about the huge seizure, making them question who to rely on,” per its logline. The film involves murder, corruption, distrust and a money-sniffing dog that is eventually given his own bulletproof vest.
In May 2026, Jonathan Santana and Jason Smith—two Miami police sergeants involved with the real-life bust—filed a lawsuit against Affleck and Damon's production company Artists Equity, as well as production company Falco Pictures, which helped produce The Rip, alleging "the events portrayed in the Film did not happen," per the complaint. Santana and Smith are seeking damages exceeding $75,000 for allegations of emotional distress and defamation.
