Virginia Senate leader Louise Lucas surrenders on federal racketeering, marijuana and money laundering charges

One of the most powerful Democrats in Virginia walked into federal custody on Thursday morning. State Senator L. Louise Lucas, 82, surrendered after a federal grand jury in the Eastern District of Virginia indicted her and six co defendants. Lucas serves as president pro tempore of the Virginia Senate and chairs its Finance and Appropriations Committee, the panel that writes the state budget. She has held her seat since 1992.

The indictment runs 45 pages. Lucas faces five of its eight counts, including racketeering conspiracy, conspiracy to possess and distribute marijuana, and conspiracy to launder money. Prosecutors allege that, starting in at least 2019, Lucas and a close circle of family members and associates built what the indictment calls the Lucas Enterprise. The businesses at its center include The Cannabis Outlet in Portsmouth, a shop she co owns, and the CBD Shoppe. The government alleges the operation distributed more than 100 kilograms of illegal marijuana, laundered the proceeds through the storefronts, and took in an estimated 4.5 million dollars.

Attorney General Todd Blanche and FBI Director Kash Patel announced the case at a joint press conference. Patel said Lucas used her position as chair of the Finance and Appropriations Committee to insulate the enterprise from scrutiny and to influence legislation for the group benefit. Blanche said the charges describe a public servant who put her own financial interests before the people she was elected to serve. Federal agents searched Lucas Portsmouth office and the cannabis businesses in May, about five months before the indictment. Reporting by CBS News and NBC News says investigators recovered marijuana and firearms from two shops, and that the investigation began during the previous administration.

The co defendants include her daughters, Lisa Lucas Burke and Theresa Lucas Lamb, and her grandson, Ryan Eichelberger. The family members were given until 9 in the morning on Thursday to turn themselves in, according to reporting from Virginia journalists confirmed by a law enforcement source.

Lucas answered in her own words. Today, the FBI, the Department of Justice, and the full weight of the federal government have been wielded against an 82 year old great grandmother, she said in a statement. I grew up under Jim Crow. I have seen what happens when people in power try to silence those who stand up to them. I spent my life fighting back, and I am not stopping now. Her legal team called the case the circus they always expected and said a fuller response would follow.

The charges are allegations. An indictment is not a conviction, and Lucas is presumed innocent unless the government proves its case in court. She has long pushed to legalize marijuana in Virginia, which makes the central allegation sharper. The government is not charging her with advocacy. It is charging her with selling illegal amounts of the drug through her own shops while she wrote the laws and the budget around it. (Picture: generated illustration.)