Royal Guard of Finance (Kingdom of Italy)

The Royal Guard of Finance (Italian: Regia Guardia di Finanza, RGdF) 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 Economic Activities, 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 Regia Guardia di Finanza 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 Regia Guardia di Finanza 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.

Organisation

Lieutenant General Giorgio Toschi, Commandant General of the Royal Guard of Finance since 2016.

The Royal Guard of Finance is a militarised police force, but forming a part of the Ministry of Economy Activities, 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.

Commands

Under the General Command are the following commands:

• Comando dei Reparti Speciali (Special Forces Command)
  • Special Unit of the Currency Police
  • Central Service for the Investigation of Organised Crime
  • Special Unit for Revenue and Public Expenditure
  • Unit for the Prevention of Community Frauds
  • Special Units Command, which cooperates directly with other government agencies, parliamentary commissions, and other central authorities.

Territorial organization

Territorial commands

• 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 Regional Offices of Public Security, 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 GRdF Territorial Stations

Regional Commands

The 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 Provincial Command. They depend on the relevant Interregional Command, notwithstanding their functional relationships with the support, innovation, personnel and training bodies.

Special departments

• 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 Tecnologico Finanziario G.A.F.T.): working under the aegis of Division XIII - Technical Services and Telecommunications and Post Police of the Administration of Public Security

Information Service

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.

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, superintendents, 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).

See also

• Administration of Public Security (Italy)
• General-Inspector of the Militarized Police Corps (Kingdom of Italy)
• Intelligence and Security Organization (Kingdom of Italy)
• Law enforcement in the Kingdom of Italy
• Royal Police Corps (Kingdom of Italy)