A FINGERPRINT match linked a woman to a major drugs racket dealing in heroin and cocaine, a court was told.

Jane Moloney's prints were found on a carrier bag recovered in a police raid that led to the arrest and conviction for drugs and firearms offences of a former Teesside University caretaker. Mark McCabe, 47, was jailed for five years after he admitted he was paid by a criminal gang to store £67,000-worth of heroin and crack cocaine, £20,000 cash, a pump action shotgun and pistol on the university's Middlesbrough campus.

The prosecution in the trial at Teesside Crown Court of husband and wife Christopher and Jane Moloney allege they were at the heart of the drugs gang and bought up McCabe in an attempt to maintain his silence.

Christopher Moloney, 36 and Jane Moloney, 37, of The Avenue, Middlesbrough, along with their niece, Nicola Harrison, 30, and her boyfriend, David Turner, 30, all deny conspiring together to supply class A drugs with McCabe between March 9, 2003, and March 19, last year.

They also deny, along with McCabe, conspiracy to use criminal property by spending the proceeds from the supply of drugs between the same dates.

Christopher and Jane Moloney further plead not guilty to conspiracy to possess a revolver, single barrel shotgun and ammunition.

Yesterday the prosecution said an Asda bag, recovered from McCabe, which had contained four Motorola radios, had Jane Maloney's thumb-prints on it.

Later, the trial heard witness accounts from police officers who had taken part in a raid on the home of Ms Harrison in Heddingham Close, Middlesbrough, which recovered heroin and cocaine with a street value of £14,000 as well as large amounts of money.

The trial continues.