Miami-Dade police detectives raiding the home of a suspected marijuana trafficker unearthed an estimated $24 million in cash — mostly in bundles of $100 bills in heat-sealed bags stuffed in 24 orange 5-gallon Home Depot-brand buckets.
The staggering amount of cash, found inside an upscale Miami Lakes gated neighborhood, is believed to be the largest single cash seizure in Miami-Dade police history.
Exhausted investigators late Wednesday were still counting the cash, most of which was found inside a secret compartment only accessible through the attic of the posh house. The hidden room was guarded by a hallway statuette of St. Lazarus, a Catholic saint popular in Cuba and with followers of the Santería religion.
Arrested was Luis Hernandez-Gonzalez, 44, who owns and operates the Blossom Experience, a North Miami-Dade store that sells lights, fans and other equipment for indoor gardening. Police believe that the business, while legitimate, caters to Miami’s robust but illegal marijuana grow-house industry.
To leave jail, a judge ordered that that Hernandez-Gonzalez post a $4 million bond – clean money, not drug money, and not in buckets.
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