Former Juventus of Turin defender Nicola Caricola - who is married to South African fashion model Tanya Fourie - has been charged by Italian police with supplying cocaine to former team-mate Gianluca Vialli.
This follows a mushrooming investigation of former Juve players' alleged links to drugs trafficking. The probe had led to the arrest of former Italy international Michele Padovano, police sources said on Sunday. Caricola, a friend of Padovano, 39, who played in the Juve defence line in the early 1990s, apparently settled into family life in Genoa with Fourie.

Caricola has been charged with trafficking cocaine, although it is unclear whether he is to be indicted as the amounts involved were apparently limited.
Padovano, however, was sacked from his job as general director of the fourth-division club Alexandria. He is accused of having lent nearly €100 000 to the alleged gang leader, Luca Mosole, 39. Italian media described the investigation of the three well-known former Juventus aces as a "black day for Juventus". The Carabinieri came across the names of the trio as part of a probe into a vast network smuggling hashish into Italy from Morocco through Spain. Investigators emphasised that there was no immediate suggestion that Caricola was involved in the international drug smuggling gang. Caricola made no immediate comment, but Vialli, in London for the launch of his book The Italian Job, denied involvement in the smuggling ring. Thirty-three people have been arrested on charges of being members of the crime gang. Thirty-eight more people charged remain at large. Carabinieri seized €14-million worth of hashish.