Carabinieri Specialist Units Division


The Carabinieri Specialist Units Division is the Carabinieri formation, established in 2001, dedicated to the performance of specialist police activities and the support to Territorial Organization and consisting of highly qualified personnel working with Ministries for the safeguard of socially sensitive issues.
The Division, which directly depends on the Mobile and Specialists Units Command "Palidoro", directs, controls, and coordinates its own units, which carry out tasks related to the protection of Italian artistic heritage, to the currency protection, to the protection of Italian embassies abroad, to the health protection, to the labour policing, to Bank of Italy needs, to the Carabinieri forensics police services. In addition, the Division provides Carabinieri air support.

History

The Division tracks its origins back to the XII Carabinieri Brigade, which until 2001 grouped the specialist police units of the Carabinieri. On 1 February 2001, with the elevation of the Carabinieri to the rank of autonomous Armed Force, the XII Brigate was elevated to the rank of Division.
In 2016, due to the merger of the State Forestry Corps into the Carabinieri, the Carabinieri Command of Units for Forestry Environmental and Agri-food protection was established. Therefore, some units until then subordinated to the Carabinieri Specialist Units Division were transferred to the newly-established command: the Carabinieri Command for Environmental Protection and the Carabinieri Command for Agricultural and Food Policies.
Europol provides this summary of the "Specialized Commands'" role: "responsible for safeguarding the primary interests of the community: from the protection of the environment, health, work and national cultural heritage, to the observance of community and agri-food regulations, to the suppression of forgery currency".

Subordinate units

The Carabinieri Specialist Units Division controls seven Carabinieri units and commands tasked with carrying out specialist police services. These units are: