L. Louise Lucas, the powerful Virginia state senator who led her state’s redistricting fight last year, was arrested Thursday in connection with an alleged bribery and racketeering scheme, a Justice Department spokesperson said.
According to a 45-page indictment filed in the Eastern District of Virginia, Lucas and six co-defendants are charged with conspiring to distribute and possess marijuana, conspiring to launder money, laundering money, and committing bribery by distributing large quantities of illegal marijuana under the cover of her legal medical cannabis business. Lucas, 82, surrendered to law enforcement Thursday morning and faces five of the eight charges in the indictment.
Federal prosecutors allege that since at least 2019, Lucas led the scheme and used her political influence in Virginia to enact legislation and regulations that financially benefited herself and her co-defendants while insulating the enterprise from state law enforcement. The indictment alleges the enterprise bought and sold more than 100 kilograms of illegal marijuana. Indicted alongside her are her daughters, Lisa Lucas-Burke and Theresa Lucas-Lamb, her grandson Ryan Eichelberger, and other co-defendants.
The charges come nearly six months after federal agents searched Lucas’ office and The Cannabis Outlet, a Portsmouth shop she co-owns. One source familiar with the investigation told CBS News at the time of the search that the investigation began during the Biden administration.
Prosecutors say Lucas allegedly told an unindicted co-conspirator she wanted a recreational license in Virginia to create “generational wealth” for her family, calling it “this is my last chance.” In a March phone call with a state lawmaker, she allegedly said she needed the recreational industry to begin because “when I did it, it was obviously illegal.”
In a statement, Attorney General Todd Blanche said the charges “reveal the behavior of a public servant who will put her own financial interests before the people she was elected to serve.”
Lucas, first elected to the Virginia General Assembly in 1991, is the Senate president pro tempore and is not up for reelection until 2027. She was a central figure in Virginia’s redistricting battle, pushing a new congressional map that added four Democratic-leaning seats. The map was approved in an April ballot referendum, tossed by the Virginia Supreme Court in May, and the U.S. Supreme Court then rejected Democrats’ effort to revive it. After the measure first passed, Lucas taunted Republicans and President Trump on social media: “You all started it and we f***ing finished it,” referring to Trump’s push to redraw Texas’ map.
Medical marijuana can be sold by licensed dispensaries in Virginia, and the state is set to launch regulated retail sales next year after the legislature legalized recreational cannabis sales in July. Lucas sponsored a legalization bill in 2021 and backed other decriminalization measures. Prosecutors say that in 2023 and 2024, the state’s Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services issued violation notices to The Cannabis Outlet for selling products that did not comply with state law.
Reporting attributed to the Justice Department and CBS News as cited in the source article.
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