Skip to content

All the news that matters, in plain English.

Latest
  1. Kyrgyzstan hands 25 Starlink terminals to schools in remote-area internet push
  2. UNEP: 1.5°C overshoot now unavoidable, but return still possible with 69% emissions cuts by 2040
  3. Lockheed and Pentagon strike initial 10-year deal for 850 F-35 jets
  4. Virginia Senator Louise Lucas indicted on federal drug-trafficking and money-laundering charges
  5. LSEG agrees $3.54bn Octus takeover and lifts 2026 outlook
  6. France bans Thursday protests in four cities as Macron blames 'seditious' ultra-left for weekend riots
  7. Delhi Police deny permission for Diljit Dosanjh's October 30 concert at JLN Stadium
  8. Two Japanese climbers missing on unclimbed Gangapurna West in Nepal

Politics

Virginia Senator Louise Lucas indicted on federal drug-trafficking and money-laundering charges

Federal prosecutors allege Virginia state Sen. L. Louise Lucas, 82, led a marijuana-trafficking and money-laundering enterprise worth an estimated $4.5 million; she surrendered to authorities on Thursday after an eight-count indictment was unsealed.

By James Calloway · · 1 min read

Virginia state Senator L. Louise Lucas at the 2008 Democratic National Convention
Rklear (CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons)

Virginia state Senator L. Louise Lucas, 82, one of the state’s most powerful Democrats, has been charged in an eight-count federal indictment alleging she led a marijuana-trafficking and money-laundering enterprise worth an estimated $4.5 million over five years.

The indictment, approved by a grand jury on 14 October in the Eastern District of Virginia and unsealed on Thursday, names Lucas and six others — including her daughters Lisa Lucas-Burke and Theresa Lucas-Lamb and her grandson Ryan Eichelberger — the Department of Justice said. Lucas, the Senate’s president pro tempore and chair of the Finance and Appropriations Committee, surrendered to authorities on Thursday morning.

Federal prosecutors allege Lucas directed a “criminal marijuana enterprise” that distributed at least 100 kilograms of marijuana, laundered the proceeds and paid bribes, using her position to shield the business from scrutiny and steer favourable legislation. The case centres on The Cannabis Outlet, a Portsmouth dispensary she opened with Lucas-Burke in 2021, which FBI agents searched on 6 May.

Attorney General Todd Blanche and FBI Director Kash Patel announced the charges at a press conference in Norfolk. “This isn’t about us trying to micromanage states’ decisions about the marijuana laws,” Blanche said.

Lucas, a vocal critic of Donald Trump in the Senate since 1992, rejected the charges. “I will not be intimidated. I will not be bullied. And I will not back down,” she said in a statement.

Sources

More on this topic: all Politics stories

Get Flip News by email

This opens your email app — we add you manually. No account, no spam, no third parties.