Virginia Senate Leader Louise Lucas Indicted on Federal Racketeering, Marijuana and Bribery Charges
Federal prosecutors unsealed an eight-count indictment Thursday against L. Louise Lucas, the 82-year-old Democratic president pro tempore of the Virginia Senate, accusing her and six others, including family members, of running a marijuana trafficking and money-laundering enterprise worth an estimated $4.5 million. Lucas surrendered to authorities in Norfolk on Thursday morning and denies wrongdoing.
The Department of Justice unsealed a 45-page indictment on Thursday charging Virginia Senate President pro tempore L. Louise Lucas with leading an alleged criminal enterprise that distributed at least 100 kilograms of marijuana and laundered the proceeds, in what prosecutors describe as a five-year scheme worth an estimated $4.5 million.
Lucas, an 82-year-old Democrat who has served in the state Senate since 1992, surrendered to federal authorities Thursday morning, according to Attorney General Todd Blanche. Blanche and FBI Director Kash Patel held a news conference in Norfolk on Thursday morning to announce the case. Lucas and six co-defendants, including several of her relatives, were named in an eight-count indictment; CBS News reported that Lucas faces five of the eight counts, which also allege bribery, wire fraud and firearms offenses in furtherance of drug trafficking.
A five-year scheme prosecutors say ran through a family business
“Today’s indictment reveals Louise Lucas allegedly abused her position of public trust as a 30-year Virginia State Senator to put her own financial interests ahead of the people she represents,” Patel said in a statement, “orchestrating a five-year scheme worth an estimated $4.5 million.” Prosecutors allege Lucas and a close group of family members and associates used her position as chairwoman of the Senate Finance and Appropriations Committee to protect the enterprise and influence legislation for their own financial benefit.
According to the indictment, the enterprise included Lucas’s daughters, Lisa Lucas-Burke and Theresa Lucas-Lamb, and her grandson, Ryan Eichelberger. Prosecutors allege that Lucas-Lamb and Eichelberger acquired marijuana, oversaw its distribution and managed The Cannabis Outlet, a Portsmouth business Lucas opened with Lucas-Burke in 2021. Federal agents executed search warrants at The Cannabis Outlet and The CBD Shoppe on May 6, recovering marijuana and firearms at both locations, according to the DOJ.
Another defendant, Carlton Upton Jr., 54, of Chesapeake, was Lucas’s business partner in VA Freedom Life, which operated The CBD Shoppe and The Cannabis Outlet. Prosecutors allege Upton submitted false information on an application for a federal Economic Injury Disaster Loan in April 2020, resulting in an $11,800 loan.
The bribery allegations
The indictment alleges Lucas paid $750,000 in August 2022 for full ownership of a shell holding company tied to an anticipated recreational marijuana license but failed to disclose the full interest on required statement of economic interest forms. It also alleges that Lucas met with a co-conspirator at her office in the state Capitol complex to receive a partial repayment and discussed the co-conspirator’s eligibility for a recreational marijuana license with lawmakers and other officials, conditioning her assistance on a bribe.
Lucas denies wrongdoing; Democrats call the case political
Lucas released a statement on X Thursday morning. “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 wrote. “I grew up under Jim Crow. I’ve seen what happens when people in power try to silence those who stand up to them. I spent my life fighting back, and I’m not stopping now.”
Senate Majority Leader Scott Surovell said Lucas “has been a historic figure in Virginia politics,” adding that she “is entitled to the same presumption of innocence that every American receives” and urging others to show restraint. But Surovell also said “it has been apparent from the beginning that this matter has been driven by politics,” noting that “when agents searched her office, Fox News was tipped off in advance,” and that the Department of Justice is led by the president’s former personal attorney. He also pointed to leadership instability in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia, where Lindsey Halligan was installed to lead the office before a federal judge ruled her appointment unlawful.
The charges land 12 days before the Nov. 3 midterm elections. Lucas, a vocal critic of President Donald Trump’s administration, had earlier suggested the investigation was politically motivated, linking the May searches to her support for a congressional redistricting amendment.
Reporting based on coverage by Virginia Business and the Daily Caller.
