Virginia Sen. Louise Lucas indicted in marijuana racketeering case

A federal grand jury has indicted Virginia state Sen. L. Louise Lucas, the 82-year-old president pro tempore of the state Senate and a Portsmouth Democrat, on charges that she led a family-run enterprise that distributed marijuana illegally and laundered the proceeds.

Lucas surrendered to authorities on Thursday and appeared briefly in federal court in Norfolk that afternoon, where she was released on her own recognizance, according to court records. She left the courthouse without answering reporters' questions.

Six other people were charged alongside her, including two of her daughters and a grandson. The eight-count indictment was returned by a federal grand jury in Virginia on Oct. 14 and unsealed on Thursday morning, The Washington Post reported. Attorney General Todd Blanche and FBI Director Kash Patel announced the case at a news conference in Norfolk.

What the indictment alleges

The indictment describes Lucas as the "leader of the enterprise" who "approved and directed criminal activities," among them arranging the acquisition and distribution of marijuana and supervising the laundering of the proceeds. Prosecutors put the quantity at 100 kilograms or more. They call the group the Lucas Enterprise.

Members of the conspiracy "used various business entities" to "disguise the proceeds of illegal marijuana distribution," and Lucas "used her political position in the Virginia state senate to insulate" the operation "from criminal scrutiny, to further the goal of wealth accumulation."

Lucas and her relatives set up the business in 2021 to sell marijuana before recreational sales were legal in the commonwealth, and it often operated under a fake name to buy its supply. Law enforcement officers made multiple controlled purchases of marijuana from the shop, which presented itself as selling hemp products, in 2024 and 2025.

This year, Lucas worked with another defendant to use her political position to obtain a recreational marijuana license for him, on the understanding that proceeds from sales under the license would be shared with her to support the enterprise, the indictment alleges.

During her time as Virginia state senator, instead of enforcing the law, she was actually breaking the law as alleged in the indictment and then using her position of power and public trust to deflect and defend against her own criminal enterprise

In an intercepted phone call in February with an alleged co-conspirator who has not been indicted, Lucas allegedly said this was their "last chance at generational wealth," adding, "I've got too old to not be greedy," according to the indictment. Patel said at the Norfolk news conference that the alleged enterprise brought Lucas and her associates nearly $5 million in "ill-gotten gains"; his written statement valued the five-year scheme at an estimated $4.5 million.

Lucas rejects the charges

Lucas did not directly address the substance of the charges in a statement posted to her social media account, which said the federal government had wielded its "full weight" against an 82-year-old great-grandmother. "I grew up under Jim Crow," she wrote. "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."

Anthony M. Capozzolo, an attorney for Lucas, said in a statement that he was "surprised and disheartened" by the charges and her arrest, and that she denied all of them. He criticized what he called "the gratuitous, misleading statements made by the Attorney General and the Director of the FBI at the highly unusual press conference that was held."

Federal agents searched Lucas's office in Portsmouth in May, along with The Cannabis Outlet, a business she co-owns on High Street, NBC News reported. Lucas, a frequent critic of President Donald Trump, characterized that search at the time as an attempt to intimidate her.

U.S. Rep. Suhas Subramanyam, D-Va., disclosed in September that his communications with Lucas had been monitored, and has said the Justice Department had become Trump's "own personal law firm, with his former personal attorney carrying out vendettas on Trump's political enemies." A reporter at NBC affiliate WAVY in Norfolk also received a notification letter showing that his communications with Lucas's number had been swept up in the wire, NBC News reported.

The investigation into Lucas was opened during the Biden administration, a person familiar with the May search told The Associated Press at the time, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss a continuing criminal investigation.

Timing before the midterms

The indictment was unsealed 12 days before a midterm election, at a point when federal authorities have typically avoided overt investigative steps against political figures so close to a vote, NBC News reported. Lucas is not up for re-election. Her daughter Lisa Lucas Burke, also charged on Thursday, is on the ballot in November for a Portsmouth City Council seat, according to The Washington Post.

Last week, federal officers searched the D.C. home of Rep. Ilhan Omar, a Minnesota Democrat who is up for re-election, as part of an immigration investigation, The Washington Post reported. The Lucas case is the second prominent action the administration has taken against a Democratic critic of the president in the past 10 days.

Blanche rejected any suggestion that politics played a role, telling reporters, "We don't do political paybacks," and noting that the investigation began well before the second Trump administration started in January 2025, the AP reported. The Justice Department has typically not brought political cases within 60 days of an election. "It's not even a rule; it's a practice," Blanche said, according to NBC News.

Four decades in Portsmouth politics

Lucas won election to the Portsmouth City Council more than four decades ago and was elected to the state Senate in 1991, NBC News reported. She has served in the state Senate since 1992 and, as president pro tempore, presides over the chamber in the lieutenant governor's absence.

She also leads the Senate finance committee, through which all legislation with any budget impact must pass, and has used the post to kill bills she opposes, the AP reported. Lucas sponsored key legislation to legalize recreational marijuana in Virginia and frequently uses social media to taunt Republicans, including Trump, according to The Washington Post.

The other six defendants

The eight-count indictment lists racketeering conspiracy, conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute marijuana, conspiracy to launder money, conspiracy to commit honest services fraud, two counts of maintaining a drug-involved premises, possession of a firearm in furtherance of drug trafficking and wire fraud, and the government seeks forfeiture of property. Lucas is charged in the first five of those counts.

Her daughter Lisa Lucas Burke is charged in the same five counts. The other defendants are Lucas's other daughter, Theresa Lucas-Lamb, her grandson Ryan Eichelberger, Prince Albert William Hudson III, Carlton Upton Jr. and Tameka Johnson, who face a mix of those counts and others.

Eichelberger is also charged with possessing a firearm in furtherance of drug trafficking. Lucas Burke, Lucas-Lamb and Eichelberger each made brief court appearances on Thursday and were released on their own recognizance, according to court records.

Attorneys for Lucas-Lamb and Eichelberger declined to comment after the hearings, and Lucas's attorney at the hearing also declined to comment outside court, the AP reported.

What comes next

An arraignment is scheduled for Nov. 16 in Newport News. Blanche said the department "intends to prove that Sen. Lucas violated the trust of the people of Portsmouth and Chesapeake, Virginia, and of her state Senate colleagues." Virginia Democrats hold a stronghold in the state legislature, The Washington Post reported.

Marijuana has been legal to possess in Virginia since 2021, but recreational retail sales remain unlawful. Lawmakers legalized adult recreational sales in 2026, with permits set to be issued beginning in 2027 and licensed sales due to start in July 2027.