FBI agents executing court-authorized search warrants raided the Portsmouth legislative office and cannabis dispensary co-owned by Virginia Senate President Pro Tempore L. Louise Lucas on May 6, as part of what federal law enforcement sources allege is a corruption investigation tied to bribery related to cannabis dispensary operations.
The FBI simultaneously carried out a SWAT-team search of a nearby cannabis dispensary co-owned by Lucas, with at least three people detained during the raids. The investigation began during the Biden administration, and agents executed warrants at ten locations with court-approved search warrants related to the alleged bribery probe.
Lucas opened The Cannabis Outlet in her hometown of Portsmouth in 2021, shortly after Virginia legalized possession of small amounts of marijuana. The store purports to sell legal hemp and CBD products. The business operated as a hemp and CBD shop, which was considered legal, but the advocacy group Virginians for Safe Cannabis found in 2022 that Lucas' business illegally sold products containing THC. The state has yet to adopt a regulatory framework to govern a legal retail market. That regulatory gap, which has defined Virginia's cannabis landscape since adult-use legalization stalled in the legislature, is now directly at the center of a federal criminal investigation, and the figure most prominently associated with pushing cannabis policy forward in the state is its primary subject.
Lucas established The Cannabis Outlet shortly after she voted with other Democrats in 2020 to legalize small amounts of recreational weed. The senator has been one of the most vocal advocates for cannabis reform in Virginia, using her platform as chair of the Senate Finance and Appropriations Committee to advance the issue while simultaneously operating a retail business in a legal grey zone that the state never fully regulated.
The cannabis shop has previously faced scrutiny after an investigation reported that some products were allegedly mislabeled or exceeded legal THC limits, raising regulatory concerns under Virginia law.
Lucas arrived at her Portsmouth office as the raids were underway. She told Fox News she did not know what was going on. She later cast the raid as an act of political intimidation, saying the federal action was "about far more than one state senator" and reflected "a clear pattern from this administration."
U.S. Rep. Suhas Subramanyam, D-Va., told NewsNation: "I know there's been a lot of concern about not having a cannabis market to begin with and how Virginia's been very slow to adopt that market."
Virginia House Speaker Don Scott, D-Portsmouth, emphasized that Lucas had not been charged with a crime, and urged caution given what he described as the politicization of the Trump administration's Justice Department and FBI. Scott is not currently representing Lucas, but previously served as her lawyer when she faced criminal charges in 2020 for allegedly inciting a crowd to pull down a Confederate statue in Portsmouth, charges that were eventually dismissed.
Lucas has not been charged with any crime. The FBI's Norfolk field office confirmed only that it was conducting court-authorized law enforcement activity and that the investigation is ongoing.
