The West Hills man arrested Thursday morning in a massive raid by multiple agencies was released on bond Friday afternoon after arraignment on charges of illegal possession of weapons and ammunition, the office of the US Attorney for the Eastern District said.
Abraham Finkler, 38, was arrested after dozens of agents and police from multiple agencies arrested him and searched his home on West Hills Road.
He was released by Magistrate Judge Anne Shields on a $250,000 bond.
Authorities said they recovered a shotgun and ammunition in the search of the home.
His previous convictions for weapons and fireworks violations were cited in legal documents submitted to the court. Finkler was convicted Aug. 24, 2001 in Nassau County of criminal possession of a loaded firearm, for which he was sentenced in December 2001 to time served and probation. He also was convicted in 2007 of possession of explosives without a license and was sentence in June 2007 to 90 days in jail and probation.
The raid was led by Homeland Security Investigations and involved agents and officers from several agencies, including the FBI, the DEA, Homeland Security, ATF and more.
“There were more agencies there than letters of the alphabet,” one source said of the multi-agency raid.
Suffolk police blocked off West Hills Road near Chichester Road for at least two hours. Sounds apparently from a flashbang grenade used during the search of the home set off erroneous reports of gunshots, and led the South Huntington school district to temporarily impose a lockout at Walt Whitman High School and its offices on Weston Street.
His attorney is Joseph Ferrante of Hauppauge.
20-MJ-208 Finkler Complaint (1)
Peter Sloggatt wrote a well-sourced account of the arrest for The Long-Islander newspaper.