According to the indictment, the feds have seized $744,370 from a storage locker rented by Vasquez, money believed to be illegal profits the cops earned in crooked deals dating back to 1998.

A spokesman for Brooklyn U.S. Attorney Roslynn Mauskopf refused to confirm or deny the grand jury action.

The two cops were first exposed in November after robbing a drug courier of $169,000 as members of a federal-NYPD task force trailing the courier watched in astonishment.

Initially charged with lying to investigators, the cops are charged under the indictment with conspiracy to distribute cocaine, money laundering, criminal use of a firearm and making false statements.

The court papers also disclose that investigators recovered $68,680 of the cash stolen from the courier that Rachko allegedly had tossed in a Dumpster in the Bronx after the robbery went bad.

The indictment dates their crime spree back to January 1998, when Vasquez, 43, and Rachko, 45, were partners in the Northern Manhattan Initiative, an aggressive, anti-drug program conceived by then-Police Commissioner Howard Safir.

Privately, police brass are now criticizing the initiative for the emphasis it had put on generating large numbers of arrests.

The defendants are scheduled to be arraigned Friday on the new charges in Brooklyn Federal Court.

Since their arrest, Rachko and Vasquez had been cooperating with the feds and the NYPD Internal Affairs Bureau. They have implicated two other detectives, Eric Wolfe - who moonlighted as a bodyguard for real estate mogul Donald Trump - and Carlos Rodriguez, as well as a retired lieutenant, John Maguire, as accomplices in their corrupt schemes.

The deadline for an indictment had been postponed while defense lawyers and prosecutors discussed a possible plea deal. Yesterday, Rachko's lawyer cautioned against drawing any conclusions based on the new charges.

"You shouldn't take the fact of an indictment as a breakdown in plea negotiations," said attorney Jeffrey Lichtman. "There is no deal on the table, and I don't know if there will be."

Vasquez was on duty and assigned to the elite firearms investigations unit on Nov. 26 when he and Rachko allegedly staged the brazen heist. He resigned from the force a short time later. Rachko retired from the force in 2000 and agreed after his arrest to seek treatment for a gambling addiction.