South Florida officers sue Ben Affleck, Matt Damon over film The Rip

Two South Florida police officers are taking on Ben Affleck and Matt Damon’s production company over a crime thriller they say borrowed too heavily from a real narcotics case and crossed the line into reputational harm. Jason Smith and Jonathan Santana, both sergeants in the Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office, filed a defamation lawsuit in Miami federal court against Artists Equity, the company owned by Affleck and Damon.

The officers are seeking compensatory damages, punitive damages, attorney fees, and a public retraction and correction. Their complaint centers on The Rip, a film built around South Florida police officers who find millions of dollars hidden in a house. Smith and Santana argue the fictional setup tracks too closely to a 2016 Miami Lakes investigation in which law enforcement uncovered a vast cache of cash tied to a suspected marijuana trafficker.

That case drew widespread attention at the time because police said they found more than $24 million inside a home on Northwest 169th Terrace, calling it the largest cash seizure in Miami-Dade Police history. Federal prosecutors later said more than $21 million was seized from the residence, and later reporting and court materials identified the homeowner as Luis Hernandez-Gonzalez. The raid took place on June 28, 2016.

Smith and Santana say the film is close enough to the real case that viewers could link the fictional officers to them. The complaint says Santana was the lead detective on the investigation and Smith supervised the investigative team, making the movie’s parallel storyline feel personal rather than abstract.

Artists Equity has previously rejected that framing. In a March 19 response to a demand letter, company attorney Leita Walker said the film does not purport to tell the true story of the incident or portray real people, and that a disclaimer appears in the credits. The company did not comment when contacted about the lawsuit.

The dispute arrives as The Rip has already moved from festival launch to streaming release. The film premiered at Alice Tully Hall in New York on January 13, 2026, and was released on Netflix on January 16, 2026. It now faces a legal challenge that could shape how far filmmakers can go when mining real police work for dramatic material.

The lawsuit underscores a familiar First Amendment fault line. Filmmakers often draw on public events, especially high-profile investigations, but public officials who believe they are identifiable on screen can still argue that fictionalization has become personal injury. In this case, the fight is not just over one movie. It is over where courts draw the line between inspiration and appropriation when a true-crime-adjacent story is sold as entertainment.