Virginia Sen. Louise Lucas indicted on racketeering and marijuana charges

In a major update, a Virginia federal grand jury has indicted Democratic state Sen. L. Louise Lucas and six others including members of her family on charges that she participated in an organized crime ring for marijuana distribution and financial concealment.

According to the indictment, Lucas, 82, president pro tempore of Virginia’s senate who advocated for the drug to be legalized, ran several businesses that purchased and sold illegal amounts of marijuana in the state to expand her family’s financial portfolio. 

She is charged with crimes including criminal enterprise, conspiracy to engage in monetary transactions in property derived from specified unlawful activity. The Justice Department spokesperson said that Lucas has handed oneself to law enforcement.

Lucas said in a statement, “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.”

Lucas has been a longtime proponent of marijuana legalization in Virginia, including through legislation. The indictment alleges that Lucas and her co-conspirators for years sold and engaged in the illicit stockpiling of controlled substances across her commercial properties.

Furthermore, the Justice Department alleged that Lucas failed to disclose the income generated by this entity on her required Statement of Economic Interests forms as a legislator.