David McDermott, aged 42, from Ormskirk, Lancashire, was detained earlier in Ghana's capital, Accra.
He is suspected of being a part of a Liverpool-based group accused of trying to smuggle cocaine in a container of frozen Argentinean beef at Tilbury Docks in 2013.
Extradition proceedings start next week, said the National Crime Agency.
Mr McDermott was arrested during a joint operation involving NCA officers and the Ghanaian Bureau of National Investigation.
The last member of a gang wanted for allegedly trying to smuggle 400kg of cocaine into the UK has been arrested.