A Manhattan cop and his customs-officer brother defiled their badges by smuggling unlicensed high-powered assault and sniper rifles from the United States to the Philippines, the feds charged Friday.

Officer Rex-Gene Maralit — who worked for the NYPD Equal Employment Opportunity Office at Police Headquarters — was so intent on making a profit throughout the five-year alleged scheme that he would ask his arms suppliers for a “law-enforcement” discount, officials said.

“One other question,” Maralit was caught on ­e-mail asking one online dealer with whom he was negotiating the price on a special operations combat assault rifle he wished to buy.

“Do you give discounts to LEO?” officials said Maralit then asked, meaning “law-enforcement officers.”

“I am an active P-O with the NYPD,” he allegedly explained. “Please advise.”

Maralit, 44, of Lawrenceville, NJ, would purchase the rifle for $2,444, according to the complaint, which did not say if the price was indeed discounted.

Maralit bought guns from legitimate online dealers, and represented that he was the actual buyer, the complaint alleges.

Instead, he would ship the weapons for a profit to a third brother, Ariel, who lives in the Philippines — skirting arms-export laws by disassembling the components and misrepresenting the contents of the packages, the complaint ­alleges.

“Aluminum side door railing, quantity of 5,” one such shipment was labeled.

Maralit’s brother Wilfredo — a US Customs and Border Protection officer assigned to Los Angeles International Airport — is also charged with assisting in the scheme.

“They used their knowledge of firearms licenses and their status as law-enforcement officers to engage in an illegal international arms trafficking business,” Brooklyn US Attorney Loretta Lynch said in a statement announcing the charges yesterday.

These were no starter pistols — but rather tactical weapons powerful enough to take down aircraft or penetrate brick walls and concrete cinder blocks, the feds contend.

Rex-Gene looked shaken as he was ordered held in protective custody pending a scheduled Sept. 12 bail hearing.</