A brazen thief did what the city Health Department couldn’t — shut down one of New York’s nastiest food carts.

Little Morocco, on the northeast corner of 39th Street and Seventh Avenue, has been closed all week — since someone stole its health certificate.

License holder Bulbul Ahmed racked up more than a dozen violations this year and, on July 23, was cited for storing food at improper temperatures and a cart-maintenance problem.

A Post analysis last month found the operation to be the fifth dirtiest in the city.

When employee Omari Hassan, 31, arrived to open up at 8 a.m. Monday, the health certificate that had been affixed to the cart was gone, so it could not operate.

It had been attached with a strong adhesive, so someone using, say, an X-Acto knife, would have been hard pressed to steal it.

Hassan figures it was ripped off by a pro for resale on the black market.

“There’s a Mafia for this kind of stuff,” he said.