KRASNOYARSK, January 24 (RIA Novosti) - A female Siberian pensioner, 77, was convicted of drug dealing and given a suspended sentence, the Interior Ministry’s Siberia branch said on Thursday.

Police got on the trail of a drug-dealing ring in mid-2010, but it took law enforcement some time to actually bust it.

The operation was run by a 48-year-old man who trafficked heroin from Kazakhstan to the Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk, where the pensioner distributed it to wholesale buyers.

When the pensioner was arrested in December 2010 with 80 grams (2.8 ounces) of heroin, she pretended to be insane.

Investigators had to order two psychiatric examinations to prove that she was sane and prosecutable.

She was given a six-year suspended sentence with a four-year probationary period, as well as fined 135,000 rubles (about $4,000).

The ring leader received a three-year prison sentence.