Karmichael Hunt, one Australia’s most successful sportsmen, has been charged with supplying cocaine as part of an investigation by Queensland’s crime and corruption commission.Hunt, 28, was arrested and charged with four counts of supply on Thursday evening, days after playing as five-eighth for the Queensland Reds rugby team.
Guardian Australia understands Hunt’s arrest is related to an earlier joint CCC and police probe that allegedly uncovered cocaine trafficking by another prominent footballer, onetime Queensland rugby league player Jason Smith.
Hunt was expected to appear in the Southport magistrates court on March 5.
He was charged along with two other men and a woman whom the CCC said in a statement had been “identified allegedly arranging the supply of cocaine during an ongoing drug trafficking investigation”.
“The CCC will allege that during an investigation focused on a cocaine trafficking syndicate operating in South East Queensland, these four individuals were identified contacting the syndicate and arranging for the supply of cocaine,” it said.
The CCC would further allege “the three men and one woman arranged for the supply of cocaine for personal use or to on-supply cocaine to friends and colleagues between June and December 2014”.
Hunt is the only Australian to have played at elite level across the three codes of rugby league, Australian rules football and rugby union.
The 28-year-old made his name as a star with the Brisbane Broncos and Queensland rugby league teams before switching to AFL with the Gold Coast Suns in 2009.
Hunt signed a contract with the Queensland Reds rugby union team in August 2014, being appointed the Reds’ vice captain in January.
Hunt’s co-accused, a Burleigh Waters man, 24, a Mermaid Waters man, 27, and a Mermaid Waters woman, 22, are also expected to appear in Southport magistrates court on 5 March.
The same month, Smith was charged with trafficking cocaine after a joint investigation by Queensland police and the CCC.
Smith and prominent Toowoomba restaurateur Jason Wood have been accused of trafficking 280g of cocaine between June and December last year.
