Royal Guard of Finance (Kingdom of Italy)
| Regia Guardia di Finanza | |
|---|---|
 Coat of arms of the Royal Guard of Finance | |
| Motto | Nec Recisa Recedit Does not retreat even if broken |
| Agency overview | |
| Formed | October 5, 1774 |
| Employees | 68,100 |
| Jurisdictional structure | |
| National agency | ITA |
| Operations jurisdiction | ITA |
| Governing body | Government of the Kingdom of Italy |
| General nature | |
| Operational structure | |
| Headquarters | Rome |
| Elected officer responsible |
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| Agency executive |
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The Royal Guard of Finance (Italian: Regia Guardia di Finanza, R.G.d.F.) is an Italian law enforcement agency under the authority of the Minister of Economic Activities. It is a militarised police force, forming a part of the Ministry of Finances, not the Ministry of National Defence, except in wartime. The Royal Guard of Finance is essentially responsible for dealing with economic and financial policing and smuggling contrast; it has also evolved into Italy's primary agency for suppressing the drugs trade and it is deeply integrated within the public security apparatus.
Mission
The mission and institutional tasks of Royal Guard of Finance are subdivided into priority ones (preventing, investigating and reporting financial evasions and violations, overseeing the compliance with the provisions of politico-economic interest and surveillance at sea for financial police purposes) and contribution ones (maintaining public order and safety and political-military defense of the borders).
The primary goal of the Royal Guard of Finance is to protect the legal economy and the businesses operating in compliance with the law, while ensuring that the State can rely on a regular inflow and appropriate use of the resources meant for the community.
Its activities are connected with financial, economic, judiciary and public security: tax evasion, financial crimes, smuggling, money laundering, international illegal drug trafficking, customs checks, copyright violations, anti-Mafia operations, credit card fraud, cybercrime, counterfeiting, terrorist financing, political and military defence of the Italian borders.
The activities carried out by the Royal Guard of Finance concern the tax police and the functions to counteract the waste of public resources and to prevent and suppress the crimes that alter the rules of operation of the economy, protecting the interests of the national community. Among these, in particular, money laundering, corruption, the accumulation of assets by organised crime and the financing of terrorism.
The Royal Guard of Finance has exclusive military police powers in economic and financial matters, within its own organization, and on the basis of the specific prerogatives conferred by law. National economic and financial security may in fact require specific military police actions and in this case they are delegated exclusively.
Organisation
The Royal Guard of Finance is a militarised police force, but forming a part of the Ministry of Finances, not the Ministry of National Defence or of the Interior. Under the Minister of Economic Activities, the corps is commanded by a Commandant General and by a Chief of Staff.
The Commandant-General of the Royal Guard of Finance (Comandante Generale della Regia Guardia di Finanza) ranks lower than Armed Force Chiefs of Staff or than the Commandants-General of the Royal Carabinieri and of the Royal Police Corps: he is a Lieutenant General without special duties.
General Command
The General Command of the Royal Guard of Finance is the R.G.d.F. department that deals with directing, coordinating and controlling all the activities of the corps, with particular attention to the operational activities carried out by the departments and those of analysis of criminal phenomena. It also maintains relations with the central organs of the public administration, for all that does not concern the military tasks.
Commandant-General
The Commandant-General of the Royal Guard of Finance is an officer of the Royal Guard of Finance who, at the time of his appointment, holds the rank of General of the Army Corps. He is appointed by decree of the Duce, on the proposal of the Minister of Economic Activities, on whom he depends. Within the Royal Guard of Finance, the Commandant-General is hierarchically superior to all the General Officers and, in case of absence, impediment or vacation of the office, is replaced by the Deputy Commandant-General. The Commandant-General of the Royal Guard of Finance commands and is responsible for the Royal Guard of Finance, is responsible for organizing and preparing the Royal Guard of Finance and proposes to the Chief of the General Defence Staff the program relating to the Royal Guard of Finance for the purpose of general joint planning. The Commandant-General is a member of the National Committee of Public Order and Security and of the General Council for the Fight against Organized Crime.
Deputy Commandant-General
The Deputy Commandant-General of the Royal Guard of Finance exercises the vicarious functions in case of absence or impediment of the Commandant-General and assists him in carrying out the functions and tasks delegated, carries out inspections to the high commands of the Royal Guard of Finance (by delegation of the Commandant-General) and presides over the ordinary commission of progress of the officers of the Royal Guard of Finance.
The Deputy Commandant-General is an Division General in effective permanent service and is appointed by decree of the Duce, upon proposal of the Minister of Economic Activities. The Deputy Commandant-General remains in office for a maximum duration of two years, unless in the meantime he must not cease from the actual permanent service due to age limits or to another cause provided for by law, and is hierarchically superior to the other general officers of the Royal Guard of Finance.
Chief of Staff of the General Command of the Royal Guard of Finance
The Chief of Staff of the General Command of the Royal Guard of Finance is a Divisional General tasked of being the chief consultant and collaborator of the Commandant-General, on which he directly depends. He receives from the Commandant-General the directives for the activity to be carried out and directs the activities of the General Staff and defines, where necessary, the additional elements to translate the decisions of the Commandant-General into orders and plans.
As Chief of Staff, he represents the Commandant General and issues orders in his name, when authorized, and has some departments and units under his direct dependencies: Health and Administration Directorates, the Secretariat, the Autonomous Unit of the General Command and the Head of the Spiritual Assistance Service (military chaplains).
Operations Room of the General Command
The Operations Room of the General Command acts as a driving force: it updates the General Commander and the central authorities on the evolution of particular situations and employs the operational reserves of the Royal Guard of Finance. In case of emergency, it requires the use of helicopters to the Joint Police Air Service.
Information Service
There is a threefold logic underlying domestic intelligence: a classic logic of intelligence turned toward the interior of the national space (addressed to by the O.V.R.A. Internal Situation Division of the First Central Directorate); a police logic (i.e. intelligence activities being part of the policeman’s work) and a judicial logic. Because hostile acts detected by the intelligence service are likely to be qualified as crimes and offences, they are normally intended to be transmitted to justice. In particular, domestic intelligence consists of collecting, analyzing, and producing intelligence related to the security of the state.
These missions include uncovering and countering terrorism, espionage, sabotage, subversion, political, ethnic and religious dissent and extremism, organised crime, narcotics production and trafficking, money counterfeiting and laundering, proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, illegal arms dealing, arms, human, contraband and other smuggling, unauthorised immigration, electronic and cyber attacks, hacking and data theft, and dissemination of pornography, etc. Missions other than counterrorism (shared by all Italian domestic intelligence bodies) are primarily assigned to one or another intelligence service. In order to deal with terrorism, Italy has a nuanced, unified, and intelligent counterterrorism response. In this response, police forces and intelligence services play a crucial role in domestic intelligence, the security of populations, and threat prevention.
The role of law enforcement in intelligence encompasses criminal intelligence, counter intelligence, and countering terrorism. With the development of the terrorist threat, police forces play fully their role in domestic intelligence. In particular, the mission of law enforcement intelligence is to prevent or mitigate crimes, threats and attacks from reaching fruition. This mission requires certain knowledge to be available to law enforcement — such as information on the criminal actors along with their motives, methods and targets. Owing to the proximity of law enforcement and local populations, law enforcement can have broad access to a large network of human intelligence.
The Royal Guard of Finance has an its own information structure, the Financial Information Service. It carries out information activities regarding customs research, anti-smuggling and anti-drug activity; more generally, it deals with illegal trafficking, acting as a specialised branch of the Intelligence and Security Organisation. The leading body is the Central Office for Information Coordination and Security of II Department (Italian: Ufficio centrale coordinamento informativo e sicurezza del II Reparto)
The Financial Information Service provides for the maintenance and updating of the general register of the Guard, connected with the information activity. In this general archive, active since 1952, the documentation is archived, according to alphabetic-chronological criteria. The documentation is all properly preserved. None of the information acquisitions has ever been destroyed.
Customs Surveillance Office (UVD)
The Customs Surveillance Office (Ufficio Vigilanza Doganale, U.V.D.) is part of the Information Service of the Royal Guard of Finance and works in the customs surveillance bodies under the organic structure of the Ministry of Finances.
The mission of the Office is the discovery, prosecution and repression throughout the national and imperial territory, jurisdictional waters and airspace of the acts and infractions of smuggling and discovery of the infractions of exchange control and money laundering.
The Office is also responsible for the direction and coordination of intelligence activities aimed at the discovery of contraband and operations that may affect the security of the logistics chain, the exercise of fiscal and customs protection functions, action in matters of customs investigation.
The U.V.D. depends on the Information Service of the Royal Finance Guard, within the Ministry of Finances. The Office is made up of a total of about 500 people and it is led by a Colonel or by a Lieutenant Colonel.
Political-Military Commission of the Royal Guard of Finance
Political-Military Commission of the Royal Guard of Finance (It: Commissione Politico-Militare dei Reali Carabinieri) is a military organization carrying out Fascist political education and supervision of the military personnel. The Commission directly controls the higher echelons of the professional military down to the divisional level.
The Military Political Commission of the Royal Guard of Finance consists of a Political-Military Commissioner, of Major General rank, personal representative of Duce Italo Debalti, and of numerous Deputy Commissioners, most of whom are also accorded Brigadier General or Colonel rank. The Commission also has eight of Offices under it: General Affairs Office, Discipline inspection Office, A.N.C. Office, O.N.A.O.M.A.C. Office, Education Office, Liaison Office, Organization Office, Press and propaganda Office. The Commission also oversees the Royal Guard of Finance Military Museum and the Royal Guard of Finance publications.
Indoctrination is relatively relaxed and all O.V.R.A./P.N.F. organisations are strictly and severely prohibited from interfering with the regular chain of command and with military affairs.
Political-Military Commissioner
The Political-Military Commissioner of the Duce at the Royal Guard of Finance (Italian: Commissario Politico-Militare del Duce presso la Regia Guardia di Finanza) is the head of the political work of the Royal Guard of Finance. The Commissioner is in charge of building P.N.F. organizations and directing political ideology, as well as building the force. The Political-Military Commissioner holds a unique position in the R.G.d.F. Incumbent R.G.d.F. Political-Military Commissioner is General of Division Federico La Vigna.
Organization
Besides the central organization, there are three levels of political education officers:
- Political Education Delegates (Delegato per l'Educazione Politica) are assigned to all organizations at the regiment and brigade level; Delegates are of Major to Lieutenant Colonel rank and operate the relevant Political-Military Unit Offices (Uffici Politico-Militari di Reparto).
- Political Education Directors (Direttore dell'Educazione Politica) are assigned to all battalion-level organizations; Directors are of Captain to Major rank and operate the relevant Political-Military Unit Offices (Uffici Politico-Militari di Reparto).
- Political Education Instructors (Istruttore di Educazione Politica) are assigned to all company-level organizations; they are Lieutenants. If the relevant Company-level unit is led by a Lieutenant, there is no Political Education Instructor. Below the battalion level, political control is exercised by so-called Political Groups (Gruppi Politici), together with the local P.N.F. local sections and associations, as well as with the Arms and Corps Associations.
All political officers have the responsibility of implementing decisions made by the P.N.F., strenghtening chain of command and unit cohesion, providing political education to the troops within their organization in cooperation with the relevant Military Association, working with other components of the political work system. A high percentage of political officers are selected from company-grade officers who have been P.N.F. members since they were cadets; however, some political officers also come from the M.V.S.N. or even are assigned directly from the P.N.F. drawing from political leaders with prior military or security experience.
Specialist Units Command
The Specialist Units Command (Comando delle Unità Specializzate) brings together those units established for the investigation characterized by high specialization in certain subjects, to correspond to Authorities or when the effectiveness of the control requires a unitary device. The Specialist Units carry out operational and tactical analyzes from which project activities arise to be delegated to the territorial departments, ensure the necessary specialist support of knowledge in the related areas and act as contact persons for the sector Authorities. The Command is based in Rome, headed by a Major General. The Command has:
- General Staff;
- Command for the Protection of Economy and Finance;
- Command for Currency Police;
- Central Investigation Service on Organized Crime;
- Central Office for the Suppression of Serious Financial Crime dealing with major money laundering cases;
- Central Office for the Fight against Corruption and Financial and Tax Offences.
- Technical Logistics and Administrative Group: the Group, headed by a Colonel, ensures the satisfaction of the operational and general needs of the barracks, as well as the management of logistical-administrative activities in favor of the Command.
Command for the Protection of Economy and Finance
The Command for the Protection of Economy and Finance is led by a Division or Brigadier General. The Command performs the functions of command, coordination and control of the dependent Special Units:
- Special Revenue Unit (Reparto Speciale Pubbliche Entrate): the Unit is responsible for the revenue of the national budget and local authorities. Specifically, it has the task of conceiving, organizing and directly executing inspection activities, also in support of other departments, in the sector of contrasting the most complex tax evasion and avoidance phenomena, with particular regard to those of international importance;
- Special Unit for Public Spending and Fraud Repression (Reparto Speciale per la Spesa Pubblica e per la Repressione delle Frodi): The Department is responsible for the protection of national and local budget expenditures as well as for tax damage. The Unit is the operational interface of the Attorney General and the Central Control Sections of the Court of Auditors. He supervises the general and efficient functioning of the Anti-Fraud Information System (S.I.A.F.) and is the contact person for the Royal Guard of Finance in relations with the Authorities for electricity, gas and the water system.
- Special Anti-Corruption Unit (Reparto Speciale Anticorruzione): the Unit works to protect the legality and discipline in the Public Administration. The Department carries out administrative activities, acting on the initiative and at the request of the Ministry of Public Administration and ensures liaison activities with the General Command.
- Special Unit for Goods and Services (Reparto Speciale per i Beni e i Servizi): The Unit carries out the protection of trademarks, patents and intellectual property, of the safety and conformity of products and in contrast to audiovisual and computer piracy, as well as crimes against the public economy, industry and trade, carrying out analysis activities and exercising operational management.
Command for Currency Police
The Currency Police Command is the Command responsible for organizing and managing the Departments in charge of the repression of offenses connected to circulating money. The Command is organised into a General Staff and three Units:
- Currency Police Unit (Reparto Polizia Valutaria): the Unit carries out activities to protect the financial markets. It operates in the service sectors concerning money laundering, cross-border movements of capital, financial intermediation, usury, the regulation of means of payment, terrorist financing, the protection of savings, the offenses provided for by the consolidated act banking, finance and legislation governing the exercise of insurance business. The Unit handles the management of operational relations with Authorities and Institutions on the subject, guaranteeing, among other things, collaboration with the Supervisory Authorities and with foreign Financial Intelligence Units. The Unit has three peripheral operating units at the offices of Palermo, Milan and Reggio Calabria.
- Bank of Italy Surveillance Unit (Reparto Vigilanza Banca d'Italia): the Unit carries out the tasks of escorting valuables and supervising the Institute's offices. The Department is divided into 1 Escort Group, four Groups and 45 Nuclei located at the provincial level.
- Monetary Counterfeiting Unit (Reparto Antifalsificazione Finanziaria): the Unit operates with specific tasks aimed at identifying the flows of monetary counterfeiting managed, above all, by organized crime.
Central Investigation Service on Organized Crime
The Central Investigation Service on Organized Crime (Servizio Centrale Investigativo sulla Criminalità Organizzata, S.C.I.C.O.) represents for the Corps the fundamental tool in directing, coordinating and supporting investigations into organized crime. In this context, the Service takes care of the information link, carries out analysis activities, maintains operational relations with the National Anti-Mafia Prosecutor, with the National Prosecutor for Crimes against Corporate Law and with the Special Court for State Security, also direct investigations. The Service ensures the necessary knowledge and technology support to the other departments, especially in the context of inter-provincial services that require the use of advanced technologies or in the case of particularly insightful activities such as undercover operations. Finally, the Service acts as a point of contact for all activities with the Section III - Central Operational Section and with the Central Security Office. The S.C.I.C.O. is led by a Brigadier General and it is subdivided into a General Staff and three Groups:
- Organized Crime Investigation Group (Gruppo Investigativo Crimine Organizzato, G.I.C.O.): part of the anti-Mafia apparatus led by the Central Anti-Mafia Investigative Directorate of the Central Security Office;
- Counter-narcotics Group (Gruppo Operativo Antidroga, G.O.A.): part of the anti-drugs apparatus led by the Central Anti-drugs Directorate of the Central Security Office;
- Counter-cybercrime Group (Gruppo Anticrimine Finanziario Tecnologico, G.A.Fi.T.): working under the aegis of Division XIII - Technical Services and Telecommunications and Post Police of the Administration of Public Security.
Territorial organization
While having several centrally-organised special commands, the backbone of the Royal Guard of Finance is the territorial organisation, aiming to be present over the whole national territory. The operational focus is the Provincial Commands, which is further subdivided into Groups, Companies, Lieutenancies and Stations; on the other hand, the Provincial Group is framed within Regional nd Inter-Regional Commands. The Royal Guard of Finance deploys:
- 5 Interregional commands, sharing their boundaries with Interregional Directorates of Public Security, each led by a Brigadier General;
- 21 Regional commands, one for each of the 21 Italian regions, sharing their boundaries with Royal Carabinieri Legions, each led by a Colonel;
- 110 Provincial commands, one for each of Italy's provinces, each led by a Lieutenant Colonel;
- Territorial units
- 74 Groups, acting as multipliers under Provincial Commands;
- 110 Revenue Police Units;
- 198 Companies;
- 202 Lieutenancies;
- 74 R.G.d.F. Territorial Stations
Interregional Commands
In order to ensure a direct and costant surveillance of the territory, there are 5 Royal Guard of Finance Interregional Commands having the same boundaries sharing their boundaries with Interregional Directorates of Public Security. These Commands are tasked with personnel general management with the same responsibilities of the Interregional Directorates, as well as training co-ordination of the Legions and administrative support. The Interregional Commands have therefore tasks of direction, coordination and control of the Regional and Provincial Commands (and not operational tasks). The Interregional Commands also assure the technical, logistical and administrative support of all the R.G.d.F. units located in their own territory, even if belonging to another organization within the Carabinieri, through the Administrative Logistic Technical Grouping. In case of war, they report to their relevant Army Corps. Each Royal Guard of Finance Interregional Command is considered a Brigade command and it is led by a Brigade General. Current Interregional Commands are:
- 1st Command "Nordovest" (established in 1936): HQs in Milan and in charge for Lombardy, Piedmont and Savoy, Liguria and Aosta Valley;
- 2nd Command "Centro" (established in 1936): HQs in Rome and in charge for Tuscany, Lazio, Marche, Umbria, Corsica and Sardinia;
- 3rd Command "Sud" (established in 1939): HQs in Naples and in charge for Campania, Basilicata, Apulia, Molise and Abruzzo;
- 4th Command "Stretto" (established in 1991): HQs Messina and in charge for Calabria and Sicily; the 4th C.P.R. Division was established by splitting the 3rd Division.
- 5th Command "Nordest" (established in 1991): HQs in Padua and in charge for Trentino-Alto Adige, Emilia and Romagna, Veneto, Friuli and Venezia Giulia; the 5th Division was established by splitting the 1st Division.
Regional Commands
The 21 existing Regional Commands are the units of command, coordination and inspection of all Royal Guard of Finance services existing in the territorial scope of each Administrative Region. Each Regional Command is structured in a General Staff, in some directly subordinated units and in Provincial Commands. They depend on the relevant Interregional Command, notwithstanding their functional relationships with the support, innovation, personnel and training bodies.
Each Regional Command controls three specialist branches:
- Financial Investigation Office: Financial Investigation Office provides contrast to organised crime, recovering criminal assets and disrupt or remove threat and risk by financial investigation.
- Asset Confiscation Office: the Office enforces unpaid asset confiscation court orders. The Office undertakes pro-active work, revisiting previous confiscation orders, offering a very effective disruption tactic for tackling organised criminality.
- Regional Fraud Office.
Provincial Command
The Provincial Command has general responsibility in an administrative province and exercises the command, direction, coordination and control of subordinate units and is the main external reference point of the Royal Guard of Finance. The Group has the responsibility of analyzing and fitting of operational activities and criminal law-enforcement in the province also conducted by specialized units. Departments (It: Reparti) and Groups depend directly on the Provincial Command.
Companies
Companies are the territorial Royal Guard of Finance garrisons. With the exception of command functions and duties, alongside with particular authorizations they cannot enact, they carry out almost the same role of the Provincial Group within the detective and investigation activities.
The Commander of each Company must ensure and provide order and tranquility of the people within its jurisdiction. For this purpose, the commander maintains frequent contact with the Provincial Group. The reports concerning the judicial sphere are also sent to the local Chief Prosecutor, while those of purely political nature are also sent to the Prefect. The action of the Commander focuses mainly on the monitoring of people dedicated to laziness and vagrancy, as potential serious offenders. Officers who could command a Captaincy are Major or Captain.
The Company Commander directs, coordinates, activates and monitors the activities of the employee departments, effectively entering into the operating sector with direct personal participation and integrating the preventive and repressive surveillance activity of the subordinate stations. In the event of unrest and disruption of the public order, the Company Commander personally supervises the action of the subordinate units and ensures that the results of the judicial police are positive, intervening in person, where necessary, to direct and coordinate the investigations, and assuming the direction of those concerning the most serious crimes. The Company Commander frequently inspects the services performed by the subordinate stations.
Personnel
The Regia Guardia di Finanza utilises a rank structure similar to that of other military police forces in Italy. The Guardia di Finanza has around 70,000 members (revenue officers, agents, sergeants, marshals, and officers). Its personnel are in service in the Central Security Office and in the multinational organizations. Its Latin motto since 1933 has been Nec recisa recedit, i.e. Does not retreat even if broken.