Guardia di Finanza

The Guardia di Finanza, literally the Financial Guard, is an Italian militarised law enforcement agency under the Ministry of Economy and Finance. Its stated tasks include preventing and investigating tax evasion and financial crime, smuggling, money laundering and drug trafficking, customs and border checks, and surveillance at sea, with a secondary role in public order and the military defence of the borders. It traces its origins to 5 October 1774, when King Victor Amadeus III of Sardinia set up the Light Troops Legion for financial surveillance and defence along the borders; after Italian unification it became the Customs Guards Corps in 1862 and the Corps of the Royal Finance Guard in 1881. The corps received military uniforms in 1907 and served in the two World Wars and the War of National Liberation. Like the Carabinieri it is a police corps with military status, and it has around 68,000 members.