NEWPORT NEWS, Va. — Virginia state Sen. Louise Lucas ran an illegal marijuana business with help from her family and used her Senate seat to keep it out of trouble, federal prosecutors charged Thursday.
A grand jury in Newport News handed up the eight-count indictment on Oct. 14. Seven people are charged in all, including two of her daughters and a grandson. The Justice Department said the case covers racketeering, drug trafficking and money laundering, along with bribery-related fraud, a gun charge and wire fraud.
Lucas, 82, whose legal name is Lillie Louise Lucas, faces five of the counts. Among them are racketeering conspiracy and conspiracy to commit honest services fraud.
The indictment casts her as the leader of what prosecutors call the “Lucas Enterprise.” They say she arranged for at least 100 kilograms of marijuana to be bought and sold and supervised how the profits were laundered. FBI Director Kash Patel said the five-year scheme was worth an estimated $4.5 million.
First elected in 1991, Lucas has been the Senate’s president pro tempore since 2020. She also leads its Finance and Appropriations Committee, which handles the budget, tax policy and state spending.
Attorney General Todd Blanche said the alleged conduct showed a public servant putting her own finances ahead of the people she was elected to serve. Public office “should never be abused for personal gain,” said Theophani K. Stamos, the first assistant U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia.
Lucas pushed back in a statement posted on X, saying the FBI, the Justice Department and “the full weight of the federal government” had been turned against “an 82-year-old great-grandmother.”
She wrote that she grew up under Jim Crow and has spent her life fighting people in power who try to silence their critics. “I will not be intimidated. I will not be bullied. And I will not back down,” she wrote. The statement did not address the specific allegations.
Family members and associates
Also charged are Lucas’ daughters, Lisa Lucas-Burke and Theresa Lucas-Lamb; Lucas-Lamb’s son, Ryan Eichelberger; Carlton Upton Jr., 54, of Chesapeake; Prince Albert William Hudson III; and Tameka Johnson.
Lucas and Lucas-Burke opened The Cannabis Outlet in Portsmouth in 2021, according to the indictment. Lucas-Lamb ran the store with her son until fall 2024, when prosecutors say her mother forced her out and Eichelberger took over as manager.
Upton became Lucas’ partner in 2019 in Virginia Freedom Life, which covered The Cannabis Outlet and The CBD Shoppe in Norfolk. He also managed The CBD Shoppe.
Hudson, who owns a Danville CBD store called Exotic World, was a regular supplier to The Cannabis Outlet, the indictment says. It lists monthly payments from the store to his company, Agri-Carter LLC, that topped $120,000 in four separate months of 2024.
Johnson is accused of supplying marijuana to Eichelberger. Prosecutors cite text messages from early 2026 in which he asked her for “flower” and discussed prices.
Commercial marijuana sales remained illegal in Virginia throughout the period covered by the charges. Under a budget deal reached in June, retail sales by businesses licensed through the Virginia Cannabis Control Authority are set to begin July 1, 2027.
Alleged license deal
The bribery allegations center on those anticipated licenses. In August 2022, Lucas allegedly paid $750,000 for full ownership of Mama’s Chicken LLC, a shell company that she and an unindicted co-conspirator expected to win a recreational marijuana license.
Prosecutors say she never reported the stake on her required statements of economic interests. Within two months, she began pressing the co-conspirator to return the money.
In a Nov. 15, 2025, text cited in the indictment, Lucas told him she would carry the legislation as chief co-patron. Before discussing future business, she asked for a good-faith payment toward what he owed her.
The co-conspirator met Lucas on Jan. 30 at her legislative office in the Capitol complex in Richmond and gave her $100,000 as a partial repayment. The FBI supplied the cash, according to the indictment.
Prosecutors allege she accepted the money in exchange for continuing to work to steer a license his way. In a Feb. 9 call, she told him the license was their “last chance at generational wealth.”
“I’ve got too old to not be greedy.”
During a March 11 call with two legislators and Lucas-Burke, Lucas said “we trying to disqualify somebody” until the co-conspirator repaid her, the indictment says.
Prosecutors also allege that in 2026, Upton worked with Lucas to obtain a recreational license whose proceeds would be shared with her. On a March 9 call, she told another legislator she needed to be covered under Upton’s license, according to the filing.
Warnings and search warrants
According to the indictment, a senior law enforcement officer hired in 2022 warned Lucas that selling marijuana was illegal and would eventually get her in trouble. At a later meeting, he asked why a state senator and wealthy woman would engage in criminal behavior. She did not answer, prosecutors say.
State agriculture regulators cited The Cannabis Outlet in 2023 and 2024 for selling noncompliant products. The second notice carried a $66,500 fine for violations that included products above the legal THC limit. No state prosecution was ever brought, the indictment says.
Federal agents and other investigators made repeated controlled purchases from the store starting in October 2024. On May 6, the FBI searched The Cannabis Outlet and The CBD Shoppe and recovered marijuana and firearms at both, the Justice Department said.
Eichelberger is separately charged with possessing a firearm in furtherance of drug trafficking that day.
Upton also faces a wire fraud count. Prosecutors say that in April 2020, he falsely answered “no” to a criminal history question on an Economic Injury Disaster Loan application despite four prior felony convictions. The loan was funded for $11,800.
The government is seeking forfeiture of several properties, including the Portsmouth building on County Street that houses Lucas’ office.
Assistant U.S. Attorneys Eric M. Hurt and Brian J. Samuels are prosecuting the case. An indictment is only an allegation, and all defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty.
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