Virginia Sen. Louise Lucas charged in $4.5 million marijuana case
What's new: prosecutors accused the powerful Democrat of using her committee post to shield a five-year operation tied to relatives.
Federal prosecutors charged Virginia state Sen. L. Louise Lucas on Thursday with leading a marijuana trafficking and money-laundering enterprise that they said generated about $4.5 million over five years. The 82-year-old Democrat from Portsmouth, the Senate's president pro tempore and head of the Finance and Appropriations Committee, faces racketeering, drug distribution, money laundering and honest-services fraud counts. Six others were also charged, including two daughters and a grandson. Investigators said the operation used The Cannabis Outlet and CBD Shoppe in Portsmouth, where FBI searches in May recovered marijuana and firearms. Lucas denied wrongdoing and her lawyer said she would plead not guilty.