Miami-Dade police officers sue Matt Damon, Ben Affleck production company over ‘The Rip’

Matt Damon, left, and Ben Affleck attend the world premiere of "The Rip" at Alice Tully Hall, on Jan. 13, 2026, in New York. (Photo by CJ Rivera/Invision/AP, File)

NEEDHAM, Mass. -- Two police officers in Miami filed a lawsuit last week, accusing a production company founded by Massachusetts natives Matt Damon and Ben Affleck of defamation in the new Netflix movie “The Rip.”

The plaintiffs argue that the film was promoted as being “inspired by true events” while “portraying identifiable members of Plaintiffs’ narcotics team as corrupt, criminal, and professionally unethical.”

Artists Equity and Falco Pictures are defendants in the lawsuit. Artists Equity is the production company created by Damon and Affleck, childhood friends who grew up together in Massachusetts.

According to the complaint, Sgt. Jason Smith believes he was represented in the film by Damon’s character, Lt. Dane Dumars, and Detective Jonathan Santana believes he was portrayed by Affleck’s character, Detective Sgt. J.D. Byrne. Smith supervised the June 29, 2016, seizure that inspired the film, and Santana executed it for the Miami-Dade Police Department.

“Apart from the fact that a large seizure occurred, the events portrayed in the Film did not happen,” the lawsuit states.

Smith and Santana argue that while the film used fictionalized names, it positively identified the Miami-Dade Police Department, a unique investigative team, the location of the seizure and the details about the drug money being found in orange buckets hidden in the walls.

“Since September 2025, with the release and widespread dissemination of the trailer and promotional materials for The Rip, along with the release of the Film, third parties have approached Plaintiffs asking which character they were and how many buckets they kept,” the complaint states.

Claims in the lawsuit say the production relied on information from Miami-Dade police Capt. Christopher Casiano, whom the plaintiffs allege was not involved in the original investigation. The filing states Damon and Affleck publicly discussed preparing for their roles authentically and credited Casiano in interviews connected to the movie.

Attorneys representing Falco Pictures and Artists Equity denied the allegations in a March response letter included with the complaint. The response argued the film used fictional names, settings and storylines and said the movie’s disclaimer made clear the story was dramatized and not intended to portray real people.

“As the disclaimer in the film’s credits explains: ‘This program is inspired by real events; however, the characters and events depicted have been fictionalized for dramatic purposes, and any similarity to actual persons is purely coincidental and unintentional,’” the response letter states.

By Phil Tenser