Miami Police have arrested a man Luis Hernandez-Gonzalez, 44, and his sister, Salma Hernandez after finding a record-setting $24 million in cash during a raid on their Miami home.
According to Miami Herald who reported the news, police alleged that Hernandez trafficked marijuana out of his business shop located on the 7200 block of Northwest 54th Street and that he had ties to drug dealers trafficking marijuana in Tennessee.
Miami police found rolls of mostly $100 bills neatly packed inside 24 orange Home Depot buckets hidden in a secret compartment in the attic.
The attic was on the 2nd floor, down a hallway near the bedrooms of Hernandez-Gonzalez’s 2 children. The money room could only be accessed through the attic.
Police also found a Tec-9 pistol and bags of cash, each labeled $150K. He's been granted a $4m bail.
“For a man with $20 million in his walls, an elevated bond is clearly necessary,” said Miami-Dade prosecutor Adam Korn at Hernandez-Gonzalez’s bond hearing on Wednesday.
Investigators worked through the night counting the $24 million in cash. The haul is believed to be the largest single cash seizure in Miami-Dade police history.
The police will move to take ownership of the cash through the government’s asset forfeiture laws and will also seize the home.
“The amount of the currency seized represents one of the largest money seizures ever in this jurisdiction,” said Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle.
