It’s a boutique car lot tucked off Jefferson Avenue in Newport News, Virginia. Lux Auto Sales & Rental sold used luxury cars out of a modest building with a handful of gleaming vehicles parked out front. But federal prosecutors say the small lot was actually the East Coast base of a sprawling marijuana trafficking operation that stretched coast to coast.
Between 2017 and 2023, the group behind Lux Auto ran a scheme that used commercial flights to shuttle millions in drug money to California and bring back hundreds of pounds of cannabis to Virginia in return.
The playbook was simple but bold
Couriers carried suitcases stuffed with cash westbound. They returned the next day with up to 80 pounds of weed packed into the same bags. They were paid $1,500 per trip.
FBI surveillance and intercepted calls revealed the operation was moving about 1,000 pounds of marijuana every week, spending over half a million dollars on airfare alone.
Agents began investigating the dealership in 2021 after a tip about large-scale trafficking
That tip eventually linked the dealership to a gunfire incident involving a Hampton police officer…