The activities of the National Intelligence Office (DINI) were suspended for 180 days as part of a major reshuffle aimed at restoring public trust and ensuring better financial transparency, the official Peruano newspaper reports.
A special commission will be set up to see how best to reform the country’s intelligence services.
The announcement came in the wake of recent media reports, photographs and videos of DINI agents allegedly snooping on a number of former Cabinet ministers and leading businessmen.
The National Intelligence Office answers directly to the president, while police intelligence reports to the Interior Minister.
In the 1990s, Peru was rocked by a spying scandal that led to the resignations and eventual arrests of former president Alberto Fujimori and his intelligence chief, Vladimiro Montesinos.
