Rob Quinn

Newser

(NEWSER) – Luis Hernandez-Gonzalez runs a successful gardening store in Miami-Dade, but not quite successful enough to explain the $24 million cops found stashed in his wall.

The 44-year-old was charged with offenses including money laundering and marijuana trafficking after police found the cash stuffed in 5-gallon Home Depot buckets in a secret compartment guarded by a statuette of St. Lazarus in a raid on Tuesday, the Miami Herald reports. Officers also recovered cash and marijuana from Hernandez-Gonzalez's "Blossom Experience" store, which they say caters to indoor pot growers with products like lights and fans.

Hernandez-Gonzalez, whose sister was also arrested, is accused of trafficking marijuana to Tennessee. He had been under investigation since 2010, when he chatted to an undercover cop about life in the drug trade, reports WPTV. Miami-Dade police plan to make the record-breaking amount of seized cash their own through civil forfeiture laws — and Hernandez-Gonzalez has been told his $4 million bond can't be delivered in buckets.

"For a man with $20 million in his walls, an elevated bond is clearly necessary," Miami-Dade prosecutor Adam Korn said at a hearing Wednesday.

(Cops in Washington state seized cash and drugs after an Easter egg hunt was disrupted.)

This story originally appeared on Newser:

Behind a Wall in a Store Owner's Home, Cops Found a Fortune in Home Depot Buckets

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