Former Arsenal striker Jay Emmanuel-Thomas has been charged over an alleged plot to smuggle £600,000 of cannabis into the UK.
Border Force officials seized two suitcases containing 60 kilos of drugs which had been flown into Stansted Airport on a plane from Bangkok on September 2.
Emmanuel-Thomas, 33, was arrested on Wednesday by the National Crime Agency over the incident, and has now been charged with importing class B drugs.
He has been held in police custody and is due to appear at Carlisle magistates court later on Thursday.
The footballer came through the youth set-up at Arsenal and made five senior appearance for the club before leaving in 2011.
He has had spells at QPR, Ipswich Town, and Milton Keynes Dons, he spent time in the Scottish league with Livingston and Aberdeen, and made 15 appearances in the Indian Super League with Jamshedpur.
Emmanuel-Thomas, of Cardwell Road in Gourock, also represented England at under-17 and under-19 level, and left Kidderminster Harriers in the summer to join Scottish side Greenock Morton.
The NCA said two women aged 28 and 32 were arrested in the aftermath of the drugs seizure and have also been charged with drug importation offences.
