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Two federal search warrants executed at Wading River homes

Federal investigators were conducting search warrants at adjacent Wading River homes Thursday, according to law enforcement sources.

Homeland Security Investigations, the principal investigative arm of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, was leading execution of the search warrants at the homes on St. Andrew’s Path and Taconic Court, a neighborhood located off Wading River Manor Road.

“HSI is out there with their law enforcement partners conducting federal search warrants,” said Rachel Yong Yow, a spokesperson for HSI. “Because we don’t know everything that’s there yet or all the details of the case we’re not going to mention anything else.”

Hundreds of boxes were lined outside the home at 51 St. Andrew’s Path and 3 Taconic Court as investigators gathered evidence. Officials at the homes, who arrived Thursday morning and remained on scene into the afternoon, could not comment on the investigation. About a dozen investigators were at each home.

A law enforcement source said no arrests have been made yet, but also confirmed there were two search warrants executed.

Two United States Postal Service box trucks and a smaller truck arrived at the scene around noon.

The St. Andrew’s address is linked to a company called Love Potion Inc. that sells a variety of adult items. A trademark application was filed in 2021 by Eduard Yusupov for a “Love Potion Pen,” according to online records. It’s unclear how the company is linked to the search warrants.

Property tax records list Mr. Yusupov as the homeowner of the St. Andrew’s address and Pinchas Yusupov as the homeowner of 3 Taconic Court. The two brothers were arrested in 2005 along with their father, Yakub Yusupov, for operating a counterfeit money ring, according to court records and media reports from the time. The brothers, who were 23 and 18, lived in Fresh Meadows at the time of that arrest. The operation allegedly “passed an estimated $9.5 million in phony bills over the last six years,” the Times reported at the time.

The brothers pleaded guilty on Oct. 20, 2005 to conspiring to sell counterfeit currency and conspiring to sell counterfeit DVDs, according to court records. Their father pleaded guilty on Nov. 2, 2005 to selling counterfeit currency. Records show Yakub Yusupov was sentenced to 60 days imprisonment and three years supervised release. Pinchas Yusupov was sentenced to 30 months’ imprisonment and three years supervised release. Eduard Yusupov was sentenced to 37 months’ imprisonment and three years supervised release.

Yakub Yusupov in 2007 was found in violation of his term of supervision that said he “cannot possess a firearm, ammunition, destructive device or any other dangerous weapon,” records show. He had to surrender to the United States Marshal and was imprisoned for eight months.

Eduardo Yusupov was indicted by a grand injury in May 2007 for “conspiring to sell, exchange, transfer and deliver false, forged and counterfeited” money. The case eventually went to trial and a jury convicted him in 2008 on two charges while finding him not guilty of one, according to court records. He was sentenced in 2009 to 12 months and one day in prison.

HSI’s mission is to “investigate, disrupt and dismantle terrorist, transnational and other criminal organizations that threaten or seek to exploit the customs and immigration laws of the United States,” according to its website.