A man who insisted throughout his trial this week that a former Chattanooga police officer planted crack cocaine on him now faces a mandatory life sentence after being convicted on drug and gun charges late Wednesday.

A federal jury took about 35 minutes to find Leslie Allen, 38, guilty of conspiracy to distribute crack cocaine, possession with intent to distribute crack cocaine, possession of a firearm in furtherance of those drug crimes and possession of a firearm as a previously convicted felon.

Mr. Allen, who authorities believe has been a leader of Chattanooga’s Athens Park Bloods gang, will be sentenced Oct. 6 in U.S. District Court.

The defense tried to convince the jury that former police officer Lawrence Goodine planted crack cocaine at the scene of Mr. Allen’s arrest in August 2006. Mr. Goodine stood trial in March on charges related to allegedly stealing money from suspected drug dealers during traffic stops. A jury acquitted him of all charges.

Mr. Goodine, 28, arrested Mr. Allen after a high-speed car chase and claimed he found about 10 grams of crack and a gun on the suspect. Defense attorney Ashley Ownby maintained that the video of the arrest clearly showed a bag of crack cocaine falling to the street close to Mr. Goodine, proving the former officer introduced the drugs to the crime scene.

The trial, Mr. Ownby told jurors during his opening statements Tuesday, would be about “a bad cop doing bad things.”

Yet Mr. Goodine never was called to testify during the trial despite having been subpoenaed by the defense to answer to their allegations.

“Mr. Allen was absolutely guilty,” Mr. Goodine said Wednesday after hearing news of the verdict. Efforts to make the trial about police corruption were “nothing but a PR ploy,” he said.

“This trial was another smear campaign against me,” Mr. Goodine said.

Mr. Allen pleaded guilty to the charges in early 2007 but later launched a successful campaign to withdraw his plea based on documentation surrounding Mr. Goodine’s conduct during several traffic stops.

Never accused of planting drugs on victims, Mr. Goodine faced eight counts of theft and official oppression and one count of perjury in state court for allegedly targeting black males in rental cars whom he suspected of selling drugs. When Mr. Goodine arrested them, prosecutors claimed, he would pocket some of their cash and deposit the rest in the police property room.

During his closing arguments in Mr. Allen’s trial, Assistant U.S. Attorney Scott Winne told jurors that allegations of police misconduct were an “absolutely unsupportable conclusion” based on the facts of the case.

“They’re driving dirty; they’ve got a gun and cocaine in that car, and they know it,” Mr. Winne said after playing the video of the chase and arrest one more time. “What you saw was a crack dealer with a gun trying to get rid of his drugs.”

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