An admitted drug dealer who worked as a police informant testified Tuesday that he delivered a pound of marijuana to Lehigh County Commissioner Zachary Cole-Borghi in 2024, and that Cole-Borghi was “fidgety, paranoid and looking around nervous” during the transaction.

“He told me he worked in politics, that he worked at City Hall,” said the man, whom prosecutors assigned the pseudonym “Randy” in court.

Randy, the key witness at Cole-Borghi’s preliminary hearing in Lehigh County Court, said the customer told him he was a county commissioner, so he did a Google search as soon as he left the meeting.

“And his picture came up. I was like, ‘Oh snap! This is crazy.’ But it just freaked me out a little bit,” Randy said.

After Cole-Borghi was arrested in August, the informant testified, he reached out to Randy and asked for a phone call. During the call, which was recorded by detectives, Cole-Borghi denied buying drugs from Randy and said police made up the allegations.

“I’m in politics. I hurt people’s feelings. Especially the people who are prosecuting me,” he said during the call, which was played aloud in court.

At the end of the hearing, Northampton County Judge Jacqueline Taschner ordered Cole-Borghi to stand trial. Taschner oversaw the hearing due to the recusal of Lehigh County’s judges because of Cole-Borghi’s position with the county.

Cole-Borghi, 35, of Bethlehem, is among more than three dozen people charged in a multistate drug operation following a grand jury investigation. He was charged with possession of marijuana with intent to distribute a pound of marijuana, but unlike other defendants, was not charged with being part of a corrupt organization.

The hearing also included an additional conspiracy charge, but did not cover more than 100 new charges lodged against him last week.

While many details of the investigation remain sealed from public view, the hearing provided an inside look into what detectives say is a high volume marijuana distribution operation headquartered in Allentown.

The informant testified that he moved drugs for a man named Joseph Rosario, who went by the nickname “Swav.” As prosecutors displayed photos from inside Rosario’s alleged stash house at Sixth and Washington streets, Randy described the packaging and sale of 1-pound bricks of high-quality marijuana that sold for up to $3,200 and could yield as many as 400 cigar-sized “blunts.”

Rosario had his own marijuana brand, Randy testified: Death Before Dirt. He advertised it online, primarily on the encrypted message app Telegram. Randy testified that he was a “verified member” or trustee of the organization, and was paid around $100 or $150 each time he delivered drugs for Rosario.

Cole-Borghi’s attorney, Gary Asteak, urged Taschner to force prosecutors to reveal Randy’s real name in court.

“My client is a public figure. It ought not be a secret who this witness is. The public has a right to know.”

While some information has been released, much of the seven-year investigation has not yet been made public. Three Lehigh Valley media outlets, The Morning Call, Lehigh Valley Live and Lehigh Valley News, have petitioned the court to unseal the entire grand jury presentment.

Chief Deputy District Attorney Craig Scheetz said that the amount of marijuana Cole-Borghi is accused of buying shows that he was distributing drugs.

Cole-Borghi did not testify Tuesday but chuckled and shook his head frequently while listening to testimony.

Randy, who said he worked for Rosario since 2023 and moved approximately 3,000 pounds of marijuana for the organization, testified that he delivered a pound of marijuana to Cole-Borghi on May 29, 2024, in an alley behind Cole-Borghi’s Sixth Avenue home in Bethlehem. He said he didn’t know the client was a county commissioner, but that it worried him enough that he alerted detectives.

Lehigh County Drug Task Force detective Chadbourne Ellis said he was also “very concerned” to learn that a Lehigh County commissioner was allegedly part of the drug operation, since the board oversees funding for some police operations and could access information the general public can’t.

In the more recent charges, Cole-Borghi is accused of numerous crimes, including 89 counts of criminal use of a communications facility, 14 counts of delivery of a controlled substance (cocaine) and one count of delivery of a controlled substance (psilocybin mushrooms.) He is being held in Lehigh County Jail under $500,000 bail.

Prosecutors, when they announced the new charges, said Cole-Borghi conducted drug deals from various locations, including a Board of Commissioners meeting and while attending the Peace and Justice Symposium in March 2025 at Northampton Community College.