Virginia state senator indicted, accused of leading a marijuana distribution enterprise

Virginia state Senator Lillie Louise Lucas was indicted Thursday on five charges that include drug trafficking, money laundering, fraud and firearms charges after being accused of running a marijuana distribution enterprise, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. Lucas is among seven indicted in the sprawling racketeering scheme, a group that includes her two daughters, Lisa Lucas-Burke and Theresa Lucas-Lamb, and her grandson Ryan Eichelberger, Attorney General Todd Blanche said in a Thursday press conference. "Louise Lucas has served in a position of public trust in the Commonwealth of Virginia for over three decades," Blanche said in a DOJ statement. "The charges alleged in this indictment reveal the behavior of a public servant who put her own financial interests before the people she was elected to serve. Our federal prosecutors will continue to be guided by the facts and evidence that led a grand jury to indict Ms. Lucas and her alleged co-conspirators." DEMS BLAST TRUMP OVER VIRGINIA FBI RAID BUT PROBE STARTED UNDER HIS PREDECESSOR The 82-year-old Lucas has served as a Virginia state senator since 1991, and as the president pro tempore of the state's Senate since 2020. As president pro tempore, she is the presiding member of the state senate in the absence of the state's lieutenant governor. She has also served as chair of the state's Senate Finance and Appropriations Committee since 2024. "During that time, as alleged in the indictment, her and her six co-conspirators, instead of serving the public as was her job, manufactured and created a criminal enterprise to illicitly enrich themselves by procuring sales and stores and divisions through the marijuana and CBD enterprise," FBI Director Kash Patel said Thursday. "Through her elected office, Senator Lucas has been a public servant of the people of Virginia. Her first duty should have been looking out for her constituents before herself, but the charges listed in the indictment reflect the alleged behavior of a public servant who put her own financial interests before the people she was elected to serve," Blanche also said Thursday. The DOJ said Lucas led the Lucas Enterprise with a close-knit group of friends and family that included her two daughters and a grandson. "[They] orchestrated a multi-year scheme to enrich their own criminal marijuana enterprise, 'the Lucas Enterprise,' using Lucas' position as Chairwoman of the Senate Finance and Appropriations Committee to insulate the enterprise from criminal scrutiny and influencing legislation to financially benefit themselves," FBI Director Kash Patel said in the statement. Lucas was directly involved in a wide range of activities within the enterprise, including the acquisition and distribution of 100 kilograms or more of marijuana and for the laundering of the drug sales proceeds, the DOJ said. The state senator opened The CBD Shoppe and The Cannabis Outlet in 2019, according to the indictment. The pot shops' openings came nearly two years before Virginia officially legalized marijuana for recreational use on July 1, 2021. In 2021, Lucas and her daughter Lisa Lucas-Burke, who is currently running for mayor in Portsmouth, Virginia, also opened The Cannabis Outlet in Portsmouth. SPANBERGER REFUSES TO HONOR ICE DETAINER IN MURDER CASE, ESCALATING SHOWDOWN WITH TRUMP DHS During a conversation with an unindicted co-conspirator, Lucas pushed for favorable language in a Virginia state bill on marijuana reform, telling the co-conspirator, "This is our last chance at generational wealth…I've got too old to not be greedy," the indictment stated. The FBI raided Lucas' office and businesses in May. Lucas responded to the indictment Thursday morning with a post on X. "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," she continued. "I'm not new to this. I'm true to this. I will not be intimidated. I will not be bullied. And I will not back down," she concluded. Lucas has a history of emphatically antagonizing President Donald Trump, his administration and Virginia Republicans broadly. In March 2023, following a New York grand jury's indictment of Trump, Lucas wrote in a post on X "Donald Trump just learned no one is above the law!" She has also been a central figure in her state's faked redistricting effort, taking to social media to brag about the redrawn legislative map Virginia Democrats tried to push through. In an April post on X she wrote "Ten f----- one," in reference to the proposed partisan breakdown which would have given the state's Democrats 10 of the state's 11 legislative districts. CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP Four other co-conspirators were charged in the indictment: Prince Albert William Hudson III, Theresa Lucas-Lamb, Carlton Upton Jr. and Tameka Johnson. Lillie Louise Lucas and Lisa Lucas-Burke's mayoral campaign did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital for comment. Fox News Digital's Charles Creitz and Robert Schmad contributed to this report.