Ben Affleck, Matt Damon sued by Miami police officers over The Rip

Two Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office sergeants have filed a federal defamation lawsuit against Ben Affleck and Matt Damon‘s production company, claiming their Netflix crime thriller The Rip — billed as “inspired by true events” — closely mirrors a real 2016 drug bust and falsely paints the officers involved as corrupt, murdering cops.

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TL;DR

• Sergeants Jason Smith and Jonathan Santana filed suit on 7 May 2026 against Artists Equity, Affleck and Damon’s production company.
• The lawsuit claims The Rip borrowed specific details from a real June 2016 Miami cash seizure worth nearly $22 million, causing reputational damage to the real officers.
• The film opened on Netflix on 16 January 2026 — including in the UK — and has already racked up over 112 million views.
• The officers are seeking compensatory and punitive damages, a public retraction, and a prominent disclaimer added to the film.

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Who is suing, and why

Jason Smith and Jonathan Santana — both sergeants in the Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office — filed the lawsuit in Miami federal court, alleging the film unfairly damaged their reputations. Santana was the lead detective on the real case; Smith was the supervising sergeant.

The suit names Artists Equity, the production company founded by the two stars, as well as Falco Pictures, which was also involved in producing the movie. Netflix, which distributed the film, is not named in the lawsuit.

“When you rip something, you’re stealing something,” Santana said. “We never stole a dollar.”

What the film depicts — and what actually happened

In real life, investigators made the seizure at the home of a gardening supply store owner suspected of taking part in a marijuana trafficking ring in 2016. It was the largest cash seizure in the history of the Miami-Dade Police Department, now the Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office.

The suit says the actual 2016 seizure involved officers lawfully discovering $21,970,411 hidden in orange buckets concealed behind drywall.

In the movie, Affleck and Damon’s law enforcement characters bend the rules — including a scene where Affleck’s character kills a DEA agent.

The complaint cites fabricated plotlines in which officers discuss stealing seized cash, lying to suspects, concealing evidence from superiors, communicating directly with cartel members, committing arson, and endangering civilians.

“Inspired by true events” — the legal battleground

Smith and Santana are not named in the movie. The lawsuit says “the film’s use of unique, non-generic details of the June 29, 2016, investigation, combined with its Miami-Dade setting and portrayal of a narcotics team, creates a reasonable inference that the officers depicted are Plaintiffs.”

The lawsuit claims family members, colleagues and even prosecutors questioned the officers after seeing the film or its trailer, asking “which character they were” and “how many buckets they kept.” According to the complaint, a county prosecutor contacted one of the officers asking whether any allegations of theft had ever been made in connection with the case.

The officers sent a cease-and-desist letter to Artists Equity in December 2025 — a month before the film’s release. The plaintiffs’ attorneys allege that the defendants responded after the film was released in January 2026 by saying that concerns were unfounded because the film did not expressly name Sergeant Smith and there was no implication that the plaintiffs engaged in any misconduct.

The complaint further alleges that a Miami-Dade officer who consulted on the film later contacted the plaintiffs on behalf of director Joe Carnahan to apologise and offer consulting opportunities on a future project.

Artists Equity’s response

In a March 2026 response to the plaintiffs’ demand letter, Leita Walker, an attorney for Artists Equity, wrote that the film does not purport to tell the true story of the 2016 incident or portray real people, which had been stated in a disclaimer in the film’s credits.

Walker also argued, according to The Washington Times, that the plaintiffs had not even identified which character was supposed to be based on Smith or Santana, meaning there was no way to connect any character to them specifically.

“They portrayed police officers as dirty, they portrayed my clients as dirty,” Ignacio Alvarez, attorney for the plaintiffs, said.

UK angle: the film is streaming right now on Netflix

The Rip has been available to stream in the United Kingdom on Netflix since 16 January 2026 — the same day it launched in the US, Australia, and Canada. A standard Netflix subscription in the UK starts from £4.99 per month.

On the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, 79% of critics gave the film positive reviews. British audiences — many of whom have already watched the film — now find themselves watching a legal battle unfold around a movie still live on the platform.

What the officers are asking for

The civil complaint seeks compensatory damages, punitive damages, attorney fees, a public retraction and correction, as well as a prominent disclaimer added to the movie. Court filings do not specify the exact amount sought.

The case raises broader questions about the entertainment industry’s use of “inspired by true events” labelling — a trend that has drawn multiple defamation suits in recent years, including one tied to Netflix’s Baby Reindeer and another stemming from HBO’s Winning Time.

For more on the film and the stars at the centre of this case, see our coverage of Artists Equity’s Netflix deal and the latest on Netflix original films.

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Reported from publicly available interviews and verified press sources. Last reviewed 12 May 2026.