Lima, December 11 (teleSUR-RHC)-- A congressional report says the drug trade is impacting the politics of Peru.  The report, released after a long investigation by a legislative commission led by progressive lawmaker Rosa Mavila, said criminal groups are looking to fund electoral campaigns to buy influence and are even showing an interest in creating political parties of their own.

Their purpose, said the report, is to secure protection from the police and justice system, including by way of so-called “narco-pardons.” A network of state officials are currently being probed over alleged bribes they received from drug traffickers in exchange for reduced sentences sentences. 

Two legislators accused of money laundering, and quoted in the report, come from the conservative Fuerza Popular party of presidential candidate Keiko Fujimori, who is leading the polls for the elections to be held in April 2016.

The party's representatives in Congress all refused to approve the release of the report.

The document recommends immediately removing lawmakers who are currently under investigation, without replacing them, and urges the financial investigative body (UIF) to freeze the suspects' bank accounts.

Commissioner Mavila is seeking to create another commission that would investigate the infiltration of drug trafficking into armed forces.

On the same day, a survey by Ipsos found that the majority of Peruvians were used to dealing with corruption, and resigned about it. Most believe that corruption affects all sectors of society, including the justice system and police, and that the problem will keep growing over the next few years.

Roughly 85 percent of the people surveyed said that corruption was rampant in politics; the same amount said the government's policies to address the issue were useless.