TLDR
Miami officers tied to a real-life $24 million drug raid claim Matt Damon and Ben Affleck’s Netflix thriller “The Rip” painted them as dirty cops, and they are now suing for defamation.
Onscreen, Matt Damon and Ben Affleck play swaggering narcotics officers in “The Rip,” a glossy Netflix crime thriller about a high-risk Miami drug raid. Offscreen, the real officers behind that operation say the movie turned their life’s work into a punchline, and they have taken the duo and their production company to court.
The film, released in January, casts Damon and Affleck as members of the Miami-Dade Police Department’s narcotics unit. “The Rip” is inspired by the 2016 Miami Lakes narcotics raid, which became the largest money seizure in Miami-Dade history after officers confiscated more than $24 million in cash.
Several of the officers involved in that real raid are now suing through Damon and Affleck’s company, Artists Equity, according to 7 News Miami. In the lawsuit, they claim the movie’s fictionalized version of events unfairly brands them as corrupt, eroding reputations they spent decades building in uniform.
Jonathan Santana, a deputy for the Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office who took part in the raid, told the outlet that even the title feels like an accusation. “When you rip something, you’re stealing something. We never stole a dollar,” he said, adding that the film has turned him into a target of jokes. People now tease him, Santana explained, asking, “Pretty much saying, you know, how many buckets of money did I steal?”
Santana’s attorney, Ignacio Alvarez, said the damage goes far beyond workplace ribbing. “They portrayed police officers as dirty; they portrayed my clients as dirty. Now their reputations are hurt,” Alvarez argued. He added that “my clients are now hurt for the rest of their lives with everybody perceiving that they’re dirty.”
This is not the first backlash for “The Rip.” The movie was shot primarily in Hialeah, Florida, and the city’s mayor, Bryan Calvo, publicly condemned the project after it premiered. Calvo said the film falsely makes Hialeah look unsafe and disrespectful of its officers, calling it “a slap in the face to our law enforcement personnel.” He warned that if viewers across the country know the city only through this film, “I wouldn’t want to come here, and that’s a problem.” Calvo also stressed that the real events dramatized in “The Rip” took place in nearby Miami Lakes, not in his city.
For Damon and Affleck, the legal fight lands in the middle of their latest professional chapter as actor-producers. Through Artists Equity, they have leaned into prestige, fact-based storytelling, and the power of the “inspired by true events” label. The lawsuit tests how far that creative freedom can stretch before real people push back.
Defamation cases tied to movies are notoriously hard to win, especially when public servants are involved, but the officers’ filing puts a new spotlight on how true-crime projects blend fact and fiction. At the heart of the dispute is something both sides trade in: reputation. The officers say a few hours of streaming drama rewrote their legacy. The stars and their company have maintained silence so far, with Page Six reporting that requests for comment have not received an immediate response.
As “The Rip” continues to stream, its legacy may now hinge on more than box office math and reviews. The next chapter may be written in a courtroom, where Miami officers and Hollywood power players will face off over who controls the story of that $24 million night.
Do you see “inspired by true events” as a harmless storytelling hook, or should stars and studios be more careful when real people recognize themselves on screen?
