U.S. federal authorities have indicted a key Virginia Democrat state senator, L. Louise Lucas, with a racketeering and money laundering plot as part of an alleged public corruption case involving a cannabis distribution business.
The DOJ also filed charges against Sen. Lucas with conspiracy to distribute marijuana on October 22, 2026.
According to federal prosecutors, besides Sen. Lucas, a half-dozen others, including her daughters, were also held in custody and charged in the alleged conspiracy.
The investigation into the 82-year-old senator opened before the Trump administration took office. According to the federal indictment, Prince Albert William Hudson III (the reported owner of Exotic World in Danville) allegedly shipped bulk marijuana to the enterprise.
Prosecutors say the enterprise was linked to The Cannabis Outlet in Portsmouth, Virginia, a business Sen. L.
Louise Lucas co-owns. Lucas responded to the federal charges in a statement on social media, writing, "Today, the FBI, the Department of Justice, and the full weight of the federal government have been against an 82-year-old great-grandmother."
"I grew up under Jim Crow. I've seen what happens when people in power try to silence those who stand up to them," she added in her public statement.
"I spent my life fighting back, and I'm not stopping now," the veteran politician further stated regarding the federal indictment. Lucas launched her political career over 40 years ago when she was first elected to the Portsmouth City Council, and then she entered the Virginia General Assembly in 1991.