Peru declares state of emergency in crime-riddled Amazon region

Peru declared Thursday a 60-day state of emergency in its northern Amazonian region of Loreto, saying the area is overrun with drug trafficking and organized crimes.

Media reports said President Ollanta Humala signed the decree to allow authorities to step up policing operations along Peru's border with neighboring Brazil and Colombia.

"The police anti-drug operations carried out by the police and their counterparts from Colombia and Brazil have noticed an increase in the trafficking of illicit drugs in the border zones the three countries share, the decree states," the daily La Republica reported on its website.

The decree called for Peru's National Police to redouble its efforts to guarantee order in the region, with the backing of the army.

For the duration of the emergency, constitutional rights are suspended to allow police to search homes and vehicles suspected of involvement in drug trafficking, the daily said, adding the move affects 28,000 inhabitants in the area.

Peru is continually battling national and international drug cartels that operate in its Amazon region, where the coca leaf used to make cocaine grows.

Recently, authorities seized 7.5 tons of cocaine along Peru's northern coast that Mexico's Sinaloa drug cartel intended to ship to Europe.