On February 9, Virginia State Sen. L. Louise Lucas got on the phone to talk about a marijuana bill.
The legislation would expand recreational marijuana in Virginia, and Lucas, one of the most powerful lawmakers in the state, was discussing whether one of her associates could land a license to cash in on it. The FBI was listening.
"This is our last chance at generational wealth," she allegedly said. "I've got too old not to be greedy."
On October 22, federal prosecutors unsealed an indictment charging the 82-year-old Democrat with leading what they call the "Lucas Enterprise," a racketeering operation that allegedly trafficked marijuana, laundered the proceeds, and used her public office to protect itself. Six co-defendants were charged with her. Several of them are her relatives.
So the "generational wealth" in that call was a family business, and according to federal prosecutors, the business was drug trafficking.
The charges include racketeering conspiracy, honest-services fraud through bribery, marijuana distribution, money laundering, wire fraud, maintaining a drug-involved premises, and possessing firearms in furtherance of drug trafficking. Prosecutors say Lucas approved and directed the operation, arranged the purchase and distribution of at least 100 kilograms of marijuana, and supervised the laundering of the money.
FBI Director Kash Patel said Lucas and her co-defendants, "a close-knit group of family members and associates," ran a multi-year scheme while she used her position as chair of the Senate Finance and Appropriations Committee to shield the enterprise from criminal scrutiny and to shape legislation that would benefit them financially.
"No one is above the law," Patel said, "and this FBI will continue to follow the facts with our Justice Department."
Lucas has held her seat since 1992. She is President Pro Tempore of the Virginia Senate and chairs the committee that controls the state budget. She has also spent years pushing to legalize marijuana sales in Virginia while allegedly holding an ownership stake in The Cannabis Outlet, a shop near her Portsmouth office. The FBI searched both in May.
When the agents showed up, Lucas had an explanation ready. She called the searches an attempt by the Trump administration to intimidate her, a familiar claim from a senator who has made a career of attacking the President.
The investigation, it turns out, opened under Joe Biden.
Her lawyers are sticking with the same line. Brian Woolfolk, chief counsel for the L. Louise Lucas Legal Defense Fund, called the indictment "the circus we always expected it to be." Most circuses don't come with a federal wiretap, 100 kilograms of marijuana, and a family indictment.
Then there are the guns. In 2020, Virginia Democrats passed universal background checks and a red-flag law, telling law-abiding gun owners that the state needed tighter control over who carries a firearm. Now the most senior Democrat in the state Senate is charged with possessing firearms in furtherance of drug trafficking. Under federal law, that charge alone carries a mandatory minimum of five years in prison, on top of any other sentence.
The wiretap matters for another reason. Federal agents can't just decide to listen in on a powerful senator's calls. A federal judge has to approve a wiretap, and the legal bar is high. Prosecutors had to convince a judge that the evidence was strong enough to justify it, and the call they recorded was Lucas talking about legislation, a license, and her own greed.
Lucas is presumed innocent, and her lawyers will get their day in court. But the allegation itself is about as serious as public corruption gets: the chairwoman of the committee that writes Virginia's budget is accused of running a drug operation, protecting it with her office, and lining up a share of the legal marijuana market she was helping create.
She's been in office for 34 years, and prosecutors say the FBI caught her explaining exactly why she wanted more: she'd gotten "too old not to be greedy."
