LAFAYETTE PARK SUPPLIED CRACK FOR SPEECH

The crack cocaine President Bush showed the nation last night during his speech on the administration's drug strategy was bought during the last 15 days by undercover Drug Enforcement Administration agents as part of an "on-going investigation" of drug sales near the White House, a DEA spokesman said last night.

Mario Perez, the spokesman, said the agents had made "a series of buys" during the investigation but had not yet made any arrests.

Perez speculated that dealers have begun to work that area because there may be "a developing market there with executives -- people who don't want to risk going to other places in the city to buy their drugs."

He said that by displaying the crack, which was purchased in Lafayette Park across the street from the White House, Bush wanted "to say that this is a typical example of what's going on. Drug dealers have gotten so daring and so brazen. . . . They're going around unchallenged and unimpeded."

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