Ex-Town forward Jay Emmanuel-Thomas has pleaded not guilty to a charge of importing class B drugs.
The 33-year-old appeared at Chelmsford Crown Court by video link from HMP Durham this morning.
Emmanuel-Thomas is accused along with co-defendants Rosie Rowland, 28, and Yasmin Piotrowska, 33, who also pleaded not guilty from the dock.
The former Arsenal youngster, of of Cardwell Road in Gourock, Inverclyde, was arrested by National Crime Agency (NCA) officers last month, Border Force officers having found drugs worth around £600,000 in suitcases on September 2nd after a flight had arrived at Stansted from Bangkok. He was subsequently sacked by his most recent club, Greenock Morton.
A trial, which is expected to last from five to seven days, will take place on a date to be set with a further case management hearing on January 6th.
Emmanuel-Thomas, nicknamed JET, joined the Blues for a fee of a reported £1.5 million from Arsenal in July 2011.
The Forest Gate-born attacker went on to make 43 starts and 32 sub appearances for the Blues, scoring nine times, before being made available by Mick McCarthy in the summer of 2013 along with Michael Chopra.
Emmanuel-Thomas moved onto Bristol City in a swap deal which saw Paul Anderson join Town and since then has been well travelled.
In addition to the Robins, he played for QPR, MK Dons, Gillingham (loan), Thai side PTT Rayong, Livingston, Aberdeen, Jamshedpur in India and Kidderminster Harriers before joining Morton in the summer.