COBI's Alfa Romeo Giulia Quadrifoglio Carabinieri is a 1:35 model built from 99 blocks under original Alfa Romeo licence, 13 cm long, in the navy blue and red livery of the Italian Carabinieri, with movable wheels on rubber tires. A sticker sheet is included.
They are soldiers, not police
The Carabinieri look like a police force and do police work, but they are formally one of the four branches of the Italian armed forces, answering to the Ministry of Defence as well as the Ministry of the Interior. Officers are soldiers who police, which is why the uniform has a military cut and why they deploy abroad on military operations.
Italy has this arrangement because it never merged its two systems: the Polizia di Stato is a civilian force under the interior ministry, the Carabinieri a military one, and both patrol the same streets. It is duplication by design — the theory being that two forces that do not report to the same people are harder to capture.
Their patrol cars have a call sign that has become their name. A Carabinieri response car on radio is a Gazzella, a gazelle, and Italians use the word the way the English use panda car.
In the COBI range
Part of the 1:35 Alfa Romeo collection, with the Giulia in Guardia di Finanza livery (24657), Polizia livery (24606), and in red (24604) and green (24605).
Specifications
Pieces: 99 · Scale: 1:35 · Officially licensed
Model dimensions: 13 × 6.5 × 4.5 cm (5.1 × 2.6 × 1.8 in)
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