Virginia Sen. Louise Lucas Indicted in Alleged Marijuana Scheme
Federal prosecutors accuse the 82-year-old Virginia Democrat of leading a marijuana trafficking and money laundering enterprise. She vows to fight the charges.
L. Louise Lucas, one of the most powerful Democrats in Virginia’s state Senate, surrendered to federal authorities on Thursday after a grand jury indicted her on charges that she led a racketeering enterprise that sold illegal marijuana through her licensed cannabis business, according to the US Justice Department. Lucas, 82, has denied wrongdoing in public statements and called the case an attack by the federal government. The indictment comes 12 days before the November midterm elections, which has drawn criticism from Democrats.
What happened
A 45-page indictment filed in the US District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia names Lucas and six co-defendants, including her daughters Lisa Lucas-Burke and Theresa Lucas-Lamb and her grandson Ryan Eichelberger, CBS News and ABC News reported. Lucas-Burke is a candidate for the Portsmouth City Council, CBS News reported. A Justice Department statement also named Carlton Upton Jr., described as Lucas’s business partner.
The eight-count indictment covers a racketeering conspiracy, marijuana distribution, money laundering, bribery-based honest services fraud, wire fraud and possession of firearms in furtherance of drug trafficking, the department said. CBS News reported that Lucas herself faces five of the eight counts. Not every count applies to every defendant.
Prosecutors allege that from about 2019, what they call the “Lucas Enterprise” bought and sold more than 100 kilograms of marijuana and laundered the proceeds through business entities, including The Cannabis Outlet, a Portsmouth shop Lucas co-owns. Under Virginia law, adults may possess marijuana, but licensed recreational sales have not yet begun.
Among the key allegations described by the Justice Department:
- Lucas allegedly used her role as chair of the state Senate Finance and Appropriations Committee to shield the business from scrutiny and to influence legislation that benefited it.
- In August 2022, she allegedly paid $750,000 for full ownership of a shell company that held an unnamed co-conspirator’s expected marijuana license, and did not report that interest on required state disclosure forms.
- She allegedly accepted a bribe payment from that co-conspirator and discussed the person’s license eligibility with other officials, including legislators.
FBI Director Kash Patel described the alleged conduct as a five-year scheme worth an estimated $4.5 million, according to the department’s statement. CBS News quoted Patel as putting the alleged proceeds at nearly $5 million. NBC News reported that in an intercepted February call, Lucas allegedly described the venture as their “last chance at generational wealth.” The department noted that all defendants are presumed innocent unless proven guilty.
Competing claims over timing
Attorney General Todd Blanche announced the charges with Patel at a news conference in Norfolk. He said Lucas “put her own financial interests above the people she was elected to serve,” NBC News reported. Asked about the timing, he told reporters, “We don’t do political paybacks,” according to ABC News.
The Justice Department usually avoids overt steps against political figures in the weeks before an election, a practice often called the 60-day rule. Blanche said the guideline was “not even a rule, it’s a practice,” NBC News reported, and argued that the case was brought for a proper purpose. He also noted that Lucas is not on the ballot this year. Her current term runs through 2027. Sources told CBS News and ABC News that the investigation began under the Biden administration.
Lucas, a frequent critic of President Donald Trump, said on social media that “the full weight of the federal government” had been used against “an 82-year-old great-grandmother” and that she would not back down, NBC News and CBS News reported. Her attorneys said they were “surprised and disheartened” by the charges and the arrests of family members, and called the news conference “highly unusual” and misleading, according to NBC News.
Rep. Suhas Subramanyam, a Virginia Democrat in the US House, said his communications with Lucas had been monitored by investigators. He called the Justice Department Trump’s “own personal law firm,” NBC News reported.
Background
Lucas was first elected to the Portsmouth City Council more than four decades ago and has served in the Virginia General Assembly since 1991. She is now the Senate’s president pro tempore, its most senior ceremonial post. She has long backed marijuana legalization and sponsored a 2021 legalization bill, according to CBS News.
She also led Democrats’ recent push to redraw Virginia’s congressional map, which would have created four more Democratic-leaning seats. Voters approved the plan in an April referendum, but the Virginia Supreme Court struck it down in May, and the US Supreme Court declined to revive it, CBS News reported.
Federal agents searched Lucas’s office and The Cannabis Outlet in May. The Justice Department said agents recovered marijuana and firearms during searches of that shop and a related store, The CBD Shoppe.
What comes next
Lucas was scheduled to make an initial appearance before a federal magistrate judge on Thursday afternoon, CBS News reported. Details on release conditions or a plea were not immediately available. The case will now move through the federal courts, where prosecutors must prove each charge beyond a reasonable doubt. The case could also affect Virginia’s legal cannabis market, where licensed retail sales are set to begin next year.
