Federal agents arrested Virginia state Senator Louise Lucas on drug, money laundering, and bribery charges.

In a 45-page indictment filed in the Eastern District of Virginia, Lucas and six co-defendants were charged with conspiring to distribute and possess marijuana, conspiring to launder money, laundering money, and committing bribery by distributing large quantities of illegal marijuana under the auspices of her legal medical cannabis business.

Lucas, an 82-year-old great-grandmother, has served in the Virginia Senate since 1992. She faces five of the eight charges included in the indictment. These charges arrive five months after the FBI raided Lucas’s office in Portsmouth, Virginia, and the neighboring cannabis dispensary she co-owns.

  • EvergreenGuru@lemmy.world
    232·
    5 days ago

    This a political reprisal by the Trump administration. The answer to this will be for democrats to push through marijuana legalization and get her case thrown out. I doubt they’ll do it, as they always find a reason to sit on their hands, but maybe they’ll give it a go.

      • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
        10·
        5 days ago

        Attorney General Todd Blanche insisted that the government’s actions were proper and “consistent with past practices.” When asked whether the investigation was political payback, Blanche said: “We don’t do political paybacks,” and claimed the probe had begun years before Trump reentered office. The attorney general couldn’t offer a good explanation, however, for why he and the FBI director had bothered to give an official press conference for charges related to a declassified drug.

        I trust this Todd Blanche guy. He’s always been on the up and up.

      • gAlienLifeform@lemmy.world
        32·
        4 days ago

        Yep, Joe Biden’s been a racist piece of shit drug warrior asshole since he was buddy buddy buddy with Strom Thurmond back in the 70s

        • EvergreenGuru@lemmy.world
          2·
          2 days ago

          I don’t understand why people are downvoting you. Before Biden got put on by Obama he wasn’t at all popular among Black people, who saw him as untouchable because of his relationship with Thurmond.

          It was his connections to the Israel lobby, AIPAC which Obama sought when he recruited Biden. In the end, Obama’s choice to wage war for Israel, a job he gave to Hilary Clinton made him a continuation of the Bush regime more than his own administration.