FEDS TURN UP THEIR NOSES AT WHITE-COLLAR COKEHEADS

Hundreds of yuppie cokeheads snared by a sting - including doctors, lawyers
and professors - are getting off because prosecutors say they're "genteel
users" who can manage their habits, sources told The Post. "The attitude
seems to be, these are not snot-dripping junkies on someone's doorstep,
these people are more acceptable, so [federal prosecutors] are
uncomfortable locking them up," said a source familiar with the decision.

Law-enforcement sources say U.S. Attorney Mary Jo White has chosen not to
prosecute any of the white-collar powder purchasers caught in a massive
home-delivery cocaine sting nearly a year ago. Sources have estimated the
number of buyers between several hundred and 2,000-plus.

More than a half-dozen dealers have been busted, and most have pleaded
guilty in the case. But no buyers have been charged.

The head of the Drug Enforcement Administration's office in New York, Lewis
Rice, has lobbied hard for buyer arrests. But White has firmly rebuffed
him, sources said.

"Rice said, 'Just give me 100 people, to make a point that this is a real
crime with consequences,'" said one fed.

Prosecutors are contemplating sending stern letters to the suspects warning
them to keep their noses clean.

"These losers are buying drugs and they get an angry letter and a free
ride?" scoffed one official. "It's unbelievable."

When White announced the dealers' arrests a year ago, she said the
livery-cab operation made buying cocaine "as easy to order as a pizza."And
some close to the case argue it would be almost as easy to prosecute many
of the buyers.

"These people are caught on wiretaps, on videotape, on phone records," a
source said. "Nothing's happening."

"We can't comment on any specific investigation," said White's spokesman
Marvin Smilon. "However, the focus of federal drug prosecutions is on
importers, dealers and distributors. Very rarely is any buyer or user
charged federally."

DEA agents spent a year building the case by observing a bogus livery-cab
service run out of a Queens apartment by Jose Fernandez, who pleaded guilty
in November.

Investigators found that the ring took phone orders for cocaine that
drivers would deliver to customers - many of them at Wall Street banks,
white-shoe law firms and swank Manhattan addresses, according to court
documents.

Sources say that since the dealers' arrests, many of the buyers have hired
lawyers who have bombarded officials with phone calls, insisting their
clients not be charged in the case.

Other law-enforcement officials said they were surprised by White's
decision, especially since the NYPD regularly busts buyers in undercover
operations.

"So, basically this means that if you buy loose joints in Washington Square
Park, you're going to get charged, but if you are a regular cocaine
customer, you don't," one said