COP'S THE 'INSIDE DOPE'

A veteran city narcotics detective has been arrested for allegedly
tipping off his confidential drug informants that they had become the
targets of a federal investigation, The Post has learned.

Detective Earl Williams, a 19-year NYPD veteran, was indicted on
charges of hindering prosecution by allegedly trying to protect a pair
of half-brothers from Drug Enforcement Administration scrutiny of
their cocaine-distribution ring in Washington Heights.

Williams, 42, is accused of warning his two informants that the feds
were on to their operation, that their phones were being bugged and,
later, that the feds had executed warrants at their drug spots,
according to a Criminal Court complaint filed by the Manhattan
District Attorney's Office on Aug. 6.

Authorities became suspicious of Williams after he began taking a keen
interest in the probe.

At various times, the feds and NYPD Internal Affairs eavesdropped on
Williams' phones and placed him under surveillance, capturing him
secretly meeting in parks with the brothers to allegedly give away
secrets rather than getting info from them, sources say.

"You can't call me on your phones . . . Call me on your cellphones,"
Williams allegedly told his informants during one call.

Williams is also accused of monitoring a confidential data bank known
as Safe-T-Net, which lists potential suspects and locations that are
under scrutiny of one police authority to prevent another from
stumbling into the case.

Williams' lawyer, Peter Brill, insisted that his client did nothing
wrong and that his accusers were misinterpreting his actions or his
conversations.

"A lot of the content is open to interpretation," Brill said. "There
are fine lines in managing CIs, and he did not cross them."

Meanwhile, other cops are being eyed for possibly knowing what
Williams was allegedly up to and not doing anything to prevent it or
to alert authorities.

Williams' arrest is the latest black mark involving the NYPD's
Narcotics Division, including Brooklyn South cops allegedly keeping
drugs seized in arrests in January and three Queens cops charged with
falsely arresting innocent club patrons and planting drugs on them.

According to sources, the brothers - whose names are being withheld
because of their informant roles - started working for the NYPD five
years ago after being snared by cops, and eventually fell to Williams,
who worked in the Manhattan North Narcotics Unit.

Sources described their contribution as very modest - especially in
the past year - but the NYPD continued to carry them as informants
even as they sold a kilo of coke every week, worth about $25,000, or
$1 million a year.

Around May 2007, the feds received a tip about the brothers and opened
an investigation.

Williams soon started asking the DEA agents about their probe, raising
suspicions.

At one point, the feds even provided Williams with "disinformation"
about whether they were wiretapping telephones, then eavesdropped on
his conversations.

As the federal probe widened into other drug suspects connected to the
brothers, investigators decided Williams had to be moved out of the
picture, and the NYPD placed him on modified duty in around January.

Several weeks ago, the brothers and several others were arrested on
credit-card fraud charges. Drug charges are likely to follow, sources
said.