Virginia State Sen. Louise Lucas Indicted on RICO, Drug, Corruption Charges
“According to the indictment, Virginia state senator Lillie Louise Lucas, 82, of Portsmouth, Virginia, led a criminal enterprise (the Lucas Enterprise) comprised of a close-knit group of associates and family members, including her two daughters and her grandson.”
A Virginia grand jury indicted Democratic State Sen. Louise Lucas on RICO, drug, and corruption charges.
Lucas serves as the Commonwealth’s Senate Finance Chair and Senate President Pro Tempore.
The Biden administration began the investigation. The FBI raided Lucas’s office, The Cannabis Outlet, and The CBD Shoppe in May.
The grand jury also indicted six other defendants:
- Lisa Lucas Burke – Lucas’s daughter
- Theresa Lucas-Lamb – Lucas’s daughter
- Ryan Eichelberger – Theresa’s son and Lucas’s grandson
- Prince Albert William Hudson III – businessman
- Carlton Upton, Jr. – Lucas’s business partner in Virginia Freedom Life, which encompassed The Cannabis Outlet and The CBD Shoppe, beginning in 2019
“According to the indictment, Virginia state senator Lillie Louise Lucas, 82, of Portsmouth, Virginia, led a criminal enterprise (the Lucas Enterprise) comprised of a close-knit group of associates and family members, including her two daughters and her grandson,” according to the DOJ. “Lucas allegedly approved and directed activities of the enterprise, including arranging for the acquisition and distribution of 100 kilograms or more of marijuana and supervising the laundering of marijuana proceeds.”
The charges in the indictment:
- 18 U.S.C. § 1962(d) Racketeering Conspiracy (Count 1)
- 21 U.S.C. $§ 846 and 841 Conspiracy to Distribute and Possess with Intent to Distribute Marijuana, (Count 2)
- 18 U.S.C. § 1956(h) Conspiracy to Launder Money (Count 3)
- 18 U.S.C. §§ 1349, 1343 and 1346 Conspiracy to Commit Honest Services Fraud (Count 4)
- 21 U.S.C. § 856(a)(2) Maintaining a Drug Involved Premises (Counts 5, 6)
- 18 U.S.C. 924(c)(1)(A) Possess Firearm in Furtherance of Drug Trafficking (Count 7)
- 18 U.S.C. §§ 1343 and 2 Wire Fraud (Count 8)
- 18 U.S.C. §§ 924(d), 982(a)(1); 21 U.S.C. § 853; 28 U.S.C. § 2461 Forfeiture Allegation
Lucas was charged with counts 1 through 5.
The DOJ summed up the alleged operation:
Lucas allegedly used her political position to insulate the Lucas Enterprise from criminal scrutiny and to influence legislation benefiting the enterprise.
Carlton Upton Jr., 54, of Chesapeake, Virginia, was Lucas’ business partner in VA Freedom Life, an umbrella for The CBD Shoppe and The Cannabis Outlet beginning in 2019. Upton also managed the CBD Shoppe and allegedly worked with Lucas to obtain a recreational marijuana license to benefit the Lucas Enterprise. In April 2020, Upton allegedly made materially false attestations on an application for an Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) for Virginia Freedom Life, which was funded in the amount of $11,800.
In 2021, Lucas and her daughter, Lisa Lucas-Burke, opened The Cannabis Outlet in Portsmouth, Virginia. Another daughter of Lucas, Theresa Lucas-Lamb, and Lucas-Lamb’s son, Ryan Eichelberger, allegedly acquired marijuana and supervised its distribution and managed The Cannabis Outlet for the Lucas Enterprise. On Feb. 1, 2022, Lucas listed herself as President and CEO of VA Freedom Life on the Virginia Conflict of Interest and Ethics Advisory General Assembly Statement of Economic Interests form.
In August 2022, Lucas allegedly paid $750,000 for a 100% stake in a business that was the shell holding company for a co-conspirator’s expected Virginia recreational marijuana license. Lucas allegedly failed to report the interest obtained in this entity on her required Statement of Economic Interests forms. Lucas allegedly met with the co-conspirator at her office at the capitol complex to receive a partial repayment and spoke with other officials, including legislators, about the co-conspirator’s qualification for a recreational marijuana license depending on her receipt of a bribery payment from the co-conspirator.
The indictment alleges Lucas led the enterprise. It accused her of approving and directing criminal activities and other activities to make the enterprise successful.
On page 27: “99. On or about February 9, 2026, LOUISE LUCAS called UCC #2 and discussed the language surrounding the recreational marijuana legislation pending in the Virginia General Assembly and the possibility of UCC #2 receiving a license and sharing the proceeds with her because ‘this is our last chance at generational wealth…. I’ve got too old to not be greedy.'”
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Comments
All in “D’ Family.
I’m confused. This ‘too old’ politico and her family own pot shops, bought pot, sold pot, allegedly lied on some forms concerning the pot shops.
All I’m reading are process crimes; slap on the wrist stuff.
Oh, ‘too old’ politico tried to influence legislation for personal gain? Most of the world calls that ‘lobbying’. Nancy Pelosi calls that ‘Tuesday’.
If harshly prosecuted, half of Congress would be in prison as well as the Virginia legislature where ‘too old’ politico wields big power.
And maybe that’s the point: ‘too old’ is a big fish in a not very small pond, and the feds want to make an example of her and her fam.
Any thing else?
“Any thing else?”
Biden was asked for his opinion and he said, “It’s too bad she is not a sympathetic old lady with a poor memory.”
Nice. That quip is so dry the the mohave desert is envious.
If Youngkin/Leonsis woulda paid her necessary bribe to allow Wizards to move from DC to NOVA – she might not be in present situation.
Nah – no amount would be enuff.
drug and corruption charges are a college degree for her tribe
It’s always the Amish…
Yogi told Boo Boo that she’s the biggest drug dealer in Jellystone park.
Isn’t there a CIA operative governor, n “The law is what I say it is.” AG in VA?
Get on the stick, people. You weren’t installed to let stuff like this happen.
But did the dragnet also succeed in sweeping up Lex Lucas?
It seems Prince Albert may end up in a can.
It used to be.
I was about to post a Prince Albert joke.
I have a friend who is a long time VA resident.. ht Elisa
“She’s the president of our Senate. She is the most powerful woman in the Commonwealth. And she’s a gangster. Everybody knows it. She runs nursing homes, drug rehabs, and cannabis dispensaries.”
All I can say is ’bout time. BTW, Elisa is thrilled..this is huge for the people in that state.. Huge.
TY Mary.
This is from Townhall:
Per federal indictment against her, DOJ has Virginia Senate Pro Tempore Louise Lucas on a phone call telling an unindicted co-conspirator: “This is our last chance at generational wealth…I’ve got too old to not be greedy”.
“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 said.
——————————————————-
Sounds like a crooked politician to me, rather than a vendetta against a great grandma.
“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.”
82 years old!!! That means that time is of the essence. Need to prosecute her now before she dies of old age.
Yes there is a lot reffer madness that granny has to pay for. Better late than never.
This is an obvious example of systemic racism.
This is an obvious example of systemic marijuana distribution:
• Commercial Infrastructure
• Family and Associate Hierarchy
• Money laundering
• Political Shielding
Louise and her daughters ran a drug empire.
Geez Louise!
Past time to stop looking the other way at criminal conspiracies run by corrupt but powerful politicians. All the looting, fraud, grifting done by folks seeking ‘their share’ of the pie like an 18th century spoils system gotta stop or at least be mitigated/deterred by vigorous prosecution and harsh sentences.
Didn’t this come up before The Ice Queen basement dweller got elected and it was all dismissed as “whitey is racist. TRUMP” Then the DA for Eastern VA quit or something instead of prosecuting her. I seem to remember a bunch of nonsense going on over this corruption hack.
Damn, I’ve never seen such racism towards a sweet 82 year old granny.
She was just living a quite wonderful final days until that racist Trump came at her.
The whole concept of “honest services fraud” is illegitimate. The Supreme Court has for decades stomped on it every chance it has had, but prosecutors keep charging it.
As a stand alone charge, especially for private persons. When employed against public officials/officers when there’s a legit crime accompanying it those uses of the statute have generally been supported. See former Alabama AG Don Siegelman for but one high profile example.
Looks like the Lucas clan spent too much time watching Tulsa King.
She ain’t no Clay Davis fer sure. Sheeeeeeeee… you know the rest. 😉
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