For almost a year and a half, 62-year-old Hilda Begley took weekly deliveries of raw heroin from a Dominican-born resident of Columbus, Ohio, cut the drug and sold it from her Beaver Falls home.

At first, Begley testified at a preliminary hearing yesterday, she bought small quantities of the drug from Eddy Nunez up front, using the proceeds from selling that batch to buy the next one. After a few months, though, Nunez began "fronting" her larger quantities, letting her pay for them from the proceeds after the fact.

Begley said Nunez delivered her 3 or 4 ounces of raw heroin a week throughout 2004, at a price of $4,000 per ounce and yielding a profit of $2,000 per ounce.

Begley, who admitted to using drugs off and on for 30 years, was arrested Jan. 20. An informant tipped off police, and when they served a search warrant on Begley's house, she turned over 90 grams of heroin and 11 grams of cocaine, among other drugs, and confessed to buying drugs from Nunez.

Begley said she wore a wire to her next meeting with Nunez Jan. 24, and passed him $4,000 in money provided by a narcotics agent. When she got out of Nunez' car -- in a Denny's parking lot in Washington, Pa. -- agents swooped in and arrested him, too.

Begley's testimony was enough to convince District Judge Janet Swihart, who bound Nunez, 31, over for court on counts of delivering drugs, possession, conspiracy to commit delivery and criminal use of a communication facility.

He is being held on $250,000 bond.

Begley, who faces nine counts on drug-related charges, said she was willing to testify regardless of the consequences, though Assistant District Attorney Kim Tesla said she had been told her cooperation "would be brought to the court's attention."