How police sniffed out sport’s coke bust

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WHEN John "Leather" Touma was shot in the stomach in Sydney over a bad debt, the alleged cocaine king pin and ex-rugby league lower grade player moved to the Gold Coast.

Often referred to as a sunny place for shady people, Touma began networking around the edges of the Surfers Paradise glitter strip.

Some 15 years later, the multi-million dollar cocaine ring Touma has been charged with establishing, would register a 9.9 on the Richter scale of Australian sport.

Football stars Karmichael Hunt, Greg Bird, Dave Taylor, Ashley Harrison, Steve Michaels and Beau Fallon — along with fringe NRL players Jamie Dowling, Kalifa Faifai Loa and Joe Vickery — would all be dragged into the Queensland Crime and Corruption Commission net.

ORIGIN STAR HARRISON CAUGHT IN DRUG NET

NO COCAINE CULTURE AT TITANS

How the sports stars are all linked. Source: DailyTelegraph

In the bigger picture, Super 15 star Hunt and the six current and two ex-Gold Coast Titans players are simply small fish allegedly caught in a police sting targeting organised crime.

The sports stars are not drug dealers, but police will allege they were caught sourcing the white powder known as Columbia's finest on a number of occasions between June and December last year.

Touma's low-rent, ground-floor apartment tucked two streets back from the canal-side mansions of Mermaid Waters is the antithesis of the five-star opulence you would expect to find a drug star living in.

But around the corner in the neighbouring suburb of Broadbeach Waters, the residence of Touma's ex-Eastern Suburbs Roosters teammate John Tobin was more akin to the high-life, palatial mansion.

COCAINE SCANDAL A CRUSHING BLOW

ANNESLEY SEES BRIGHT FUTURE

Jason Smith leaves Toowoomba Magistrates court on charges relating to drug trafficking. Source: News Corp Australia

Little did the alleged major players know, their phones were tapped and their homes were under video and photographic surveillance from the CCC.

From Bird's ill-fated Buck's party to a Gold Coast Titans booze cruise on Mad Monday, police will allege the drug dealer known as "Leather" was being contacted by a host of sports stars looking to source cocaine.

Police will not only allege "Leather" delivered, but it's believed they have text message trails and video and photographic evidence capturing the transactions.

The fine print of the supply allegations will begin to come out this Thursday, when Hunt and Gold Coast Titans duo Falloon and Dowling face the music in Southport Magistrates Court.

But the tentacles of Australian sport's latest drugs scandal stretch much further, with all of the significant players linked to a rugby league pedigree.

Early photo from 1990s playing days of ex-Roosters drug dealer John Thomas, who is one of the central figures in the Gold Coast Titans cocaine investigation. (In the middle next to the left of the red head is John Thomas, one of the king pins involved in the Gold Coast Titans drug investigation) Source: Supplied

Police will allege Touma, or John Thomas as he was known in the lower grades at Eastern Suburbs in the late 1980s and early 1990s, and his ex-teammate Tobin were significant players in the cocaine trade.

On the next level below them on the organisational chart, retired Queensland and Australian star Jason Smith, was allegedly also a significant player.

Through covert surveillance, police claim they began to unravel a chain of command where the duo was distributing cocaine to Smith, who owns the Mill Street Tavern hotel in Toowoomba.

Smith and Toowoomba restaurateur Jason Wood have both been charged with trafficking 280 grams of cocaine between June and December last year.

Former Tigers player Matt Seers. Source: News Corp Australia

Police believe another significant member of the network was ex-North Sydney Bears and Wests Tigers fullback Matt Seers, who was allegedly used as a "driver" couriering cocaine between the Gold Coast and Toowoomba.

Seers famously stood down from playing for the North Sydney Bears in 1998 to try and tackle a cocaine addiction during his playing days.

Smith and Seers are currently banned from contacting each other until their cases are heard in the Queensland court system.

Touma and Tobin are currently out on bail and believed to have returned to Sydney.

Irrespective of what happens in court, all of the Gold Coast Titans players still contracted to the club will most likely face the sack over bringing the club into disrepute.

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