Miami-Dade narcotics officers Jason Smith and Jonathan Santana sued Artists Equity and Falco Pictures on Tuesday in federal court in Florida, saying the Netflix thriller The Rip defamed them by turning a real drug seizure into a story about corruption, theft and murder. The officers say the film, marketed as inspired by true events, borrowed heavily from a June 29, 2016 investigation in Miami Lakes and then added accusations that were never part of the case.
The lawsuit centers on a haul that investigators say amounted to $21,970,411 hidden in orange buckets behind drywall inside a Miami Lakes home. Santana says he was the lead detective on the case and Smith supervised the operation, but the complaint says the film used those facts to build scenes in which officers discuss stealing seized money, lying to suspects, concealing evidence from superiors and communicating directly with cartel members. It also says the film portrayed officers tied to the seizure as implicated in the murder of a fellow officer and later the killing of a DEA agent.
The complaint lands on Ben Affleck’s company after a production run that tied the project closely to one of the most recognizable names in Hollywood crime dramas. Artists Equity was founded by Matt Damon and Affleck in 2022, with Damon serving as chief creative officer and Affleck as chief executive officer. The two were co-leads on The Rip and co-producers, and the officers say the movie recreated several distinctive details from the real case while crossing a line into fictional misconduct that damaged their reputations.
That reputational harm is the core of the case. Smith and Santana say family members, colleagues and prosecutors questioned them after seeing the film or its trailer, and they say they sent a cease-and-desist letter in December 2025 objecting to the promotional campaign. The complaint also says a Miami-Dade officer who consulted on the film later contacted the plaintiffs on behalf of director Joe Carnahan to apologize and offer consulting opportunities on a future project, a move that underscores how closely the production appears to have tracked the real investigation even as it added its most damaging claims.
The suit seeks unspecified damages for defamation, defamation by implication and intentional infliction of emotional distress. Netflix is not named as a defendant, leaving Artists Equity and Falco Pictures to answer for a film that the officers say took a real seizure of nearly $22 million and turned it into a story about dirty cops. For Smith and Santana, the legal fight is now about whether a movie can borrow the details of a case this specific while blaming the wrong men for what it shows on screen.
