Since Mexico's President Enrique Peña Nieto took office two years ago, the national intelligence body has carried out three times more legal phone tappings than in the whole of the past administration, the Mexican newspaper Milenio reported on Monday.

According to figures from the "Investigation and National Security Center" (CISEN,) during the six-year administration of Mexico's former President Felipe Calderon the intelligence body carried out 299 phone tappings, while during the first 22 months of Peña Nieto's government CISEN has made some 974 tappings.

Gilberto Santa Rita, an expert interviewed by Milenio, said that the astonishing growth is due to a series of reforms approved during Calderon's government that give Mexican security forces more freedom in their vigilance tasks.

Santa Rita added that the only bodies allow to tap telephones in Mexico are CISEN and the "Deputy Organized Crime Specialized Secretary," and that each phone tapping must be approved by a judge on the basis that it can prevent a risk to national security.

According to Milenio's investigation, the phone tappings and email surveillance in Mexico has increased along with CISEN's budget.

During Calderon's whole administration the CISEN received $813 million while so far under Peña Nieto's it has an approved budget of more than $1 billion.