$500,000 in cocaine at Tonawanda home

TONAWANDA, N.Y. (WIVB) - Western New York's war on drugs has made a direct hit. Authorities say they seized massive amounts of cocaine and marijuana.

2 different drug busts in the past 10 days have netted cocaine and marijuana with a street value of about $2 million.

Dale Kasprzyk of the Drug Enforcement Administration said authorities seized, "Very pure cocaine."

Cocaine with a street value of over a half million dollars, 70 pounds of marijuana, and a $170,000 cash were all seized from a home on St. Amelia Drive in the Town of Tonawanda - the home of 40-year-old Richard Himbury.

>> In his notebook, George is given a closer look at the drugs and cash from the raid

"His drug activities extended beyond the Town of Tonawanda into other cities within the western New York area. It extended all the way south down to the towns of Olean and Salamanca," said Kasprzyk.

Police say Himbury lived in the home with his two children and 95-year-old grandmother, who they don't believe had any clue about the drugs. He was arrested Tuesday morning when agents tried to pull him over, and he sped away eventually rolling his car in the Town of Wales.

Neighbor Helena Candino said, "Well, you never get to know your real neighbors, what're you going to do? It happens."

Himbury's neighbor says he actually made a point of returning a $5 bill that his children had found near her house.

"And he came over and apologized and gave it back and that's how I got to meet him, real nice man," said Candino.

10 days ago in an unrelated case, agents seized nearly a million dollars in cocaine from three other men. Letorrance Travis of Buffalo, Karl Audirsch of Louisiana, and Luis Zuniga, a resident alien from Mexico.

Kasprzyk said, "Mexican traffickers have been involved with selling quantities and some of that cocaine has worked its way up into the western new York area."

U.S. Attorney William Hochul said, "The amount of cocaine and marijuana which has been seized in the last 10 days alone constitutes a huge amount of narcotics that is pouring into the western new York area."

Now that the drugs are off the streets, police expect it to be a big hit on the local drug trade. All four of the suspects face a mandatory minimum of 10 years in federal prison if convicted.