UPDATE: A COCAINE ring at the Gold Coast Suns has been identified in intelligence reports.

The Herald Sun can reveal that Suns players came to the attention of police two years ago over allegations some were supplying and using cocaine among themselves.

While reports did not name individuals, it was alleged players used cocaine in private homes as long ago as 2012.

The suspected use occurred outside the official AFL competition season and club officials were kept in the dark.

One then current player sourced cocaine more than once and supplied it to teammates, according to the claims.

SCANDAL: AFL PUSHING FOR MORE HAIR-TESTS

PROBLEM: JONO BROWN CALLS FOR TOUGHER PENALTIES

Police and AFL officials have publicly flagged concerns about drug use among players in recent years.

Some former club figures have even raised concerns about use among club officials.

Lifting the lid on football’s hidden culture in its drugs in sport report, the Australian Crime Commission also stated: “There is ... evidence to suggest that some athletes are supplying others with illicit drugs.”

The explosive report, published in early 2013 following a long investigation called Operation Aperio, continues: “Information obtained by the ACC suggests that illicit drug use by professional athletes remains an ongoing issue, with official statistics for illicit drug use within professional sports likely to significantly understate the extent of actual use.”

The ACC would not elaborate, saying: “The ACC has never publicly commented on the teams or individuals involved in Project Aperio.”

The revelations come as one former Suns player, Karmichael Hunt, prepares to face court on four counts of supplying cocaine between June and December last year.

Hunt is among eight people, mostly elite athletes, who have been caught up in a Crime and Corruption Commission investigation into a cocaine trafficking network operating in southeast Queensland.

Managers of worried Suns players have this week made contact with lawyers in case the club is the next target in the investigation, which has plunged the NRL into crisis.

So far, six current and former Gold Coast Titans players have been charged.

The CCC, which investigates serious organised crime, says more athletes could be charged later this week or early next week.

“Based on current information, the CCC expects any further arrests of current or former sportspeople will occur by the end of this week or early next week,” the CCC said. “However, if new information comes to hand the CCC may consider further arrests.”

Superstar Hunt, 28, played across three major footy codes and left the AFL at the end of last season.

Suns coach Rodney Eade says his club is unable to act on any alleged link between cocaine use and his players as he doesn’t have any details.

Eade said his club took the matter seriously but had little to go on.

“This is the first we’ve heard about it,” he told afl.com.au’s First Bounce today.

“There’s actually no information, there’s no facts around it.

“Obviously as a club and an industry we take drugs very seriously but we can’t act unless we’ve got facts and the information and we haven’t got that.

“So we certainly would act but at this stage there’s nothing there.”

And former Sun Campbell Brown, who played at Gold Coast from 2011-13 before being sacked following an off-field altercation with a teammate, said he never witnessed any cocaine use during his time at the club.

“I was very shocked when I saw that story (involving Karmichael Hunt) break last week,” Brown told afl.com.au

“I suppose it’s one of those things that, unless you do it, you’re completely unaware of what’s happening ... It certainly doesn’t surprise me that it has bobbed up in the AFL because there’s so many young players, high-profile players with big incomes.

“But certainly I never saw it in my time at the Gold Coast.”

Eade yesterday said club officials had spoken to players about the unfolding cocaine drama, inviting anyone with information to volunteer it.

“The CEO, Andrew Travis, addressed the players as did footy operations manager Marcus Ashcroft and I had a chat with them as well,” Eade said.

“It was a bit of an education process informing them of what’s been happening, but asking them as well if they have been notified by anyone or if they have any information to come forward.

“We haven’t had any players come forward at this stage, so it’s just been business as usual to be honest.”

Suns spokesman Stephen Wilson also said last night that before Hunt’s charge, the club had never received any information about cocaine use among players.

He said they remained in the dark on the CCC probe.

“The AFL is on the record saying they have spoken with the CCC, but have no more information than has been aired in the media.”

The CCC has declined to comment.

Sources familiar with the CCC probe say athletes were not the target of the cocaine investigation, rather they were bit players in a network whose key suspected members are in Sydney.

A former AFL official told the Herald Sun that as alert as they have been to the possibility players might have been using drugs, such use is hard to detect if it happens behind closed doors in the off-season.

“We look for changes in behaviour and that sort of thing but it is hard to pick,” the ex-official said.

The AFL has one of the toughest illicit drug testing policies in sport, testing for illegal drugs even outside of the competition season. Victoria Police acting sergeant Melissa Seach said: “Drug use has no place in any sport.”

carly.crawford@news.com.au