Nayib Bukele has come to be known as the face fighting against gang violence and justice. However, a new ProPublica investigation reveals that image may be misleading.

The bombshell investigation comes from ProPublica, which gathered information from a long-running U.S. investigation of MS-13 as an effort to dismantle the gang’s leadership and later expanded to focus on whether the Bukele government cut a secret deal with the gang in the early years of his presidency.

According to ProPublica, Bukele’s allies blocked extraditions of gang leaders whom U.S. agents viewed as potential witnesses to the negotiations and persecuted Salvadoran law enforcement officials who helped the task force.

Further, the investigation suggests that the Bukele government may have diverted U.S. aid funds to the gang as part of the alleged deal to provide it with money and power in exchange for votes and reduced homicide rates. In 2021, agents drew up a request to review U.S. bank accounts held by Salvadoran political figures to look for evidence of money laundering related to the suspected diversion of U.S. funds.