A group of conspiracy theorists are attempting to latch on to the recent viral story surrounding a tunnel built near a New York synagogue by claiming to have found evidence of pedophilia under the city.
Dom Lucre, a prominent conspiracy theorist best known for spreading misinformation on X, shared a teaser trailer on Tuesday for a film dubbed "The Tunnels."
The film—which is being developed with a conspiratorial media company called Truth Army Productions as well as Died Suddenly, the project that produced the widely debunked anti-vaccine film bearing the same name—claims to investigate "the New York tunnels and reports of missing children."
But the film does not appear to investigate the tunnel found adjacent to the Chabad-Lubavitch World Headquarters in the Crown Heights neighborhood, which, despite antisemitic claims that the tunnel was used for abusing children, was tied to a longstanding property dispute.
Instead, the trailer shows an alleged underground area of New York that Lucre sensationally claimed was filled with "pedophile symbolism" and evidence of "blood rituals."
The QAnon conspiracy, which believes former President Donald Trump is fighting a secret cabal of pedophiles, long-theorized that secret underground New York tunnels could aid in child trafficking.
"BREAKING NEWS: Tonight, The Tunnel investigation with 'Truth Army Films' led us to an underground entrance we were tipped off about that had caches of toys, mattresses, and toddler's clothing," Lucre wrote. "About a mile inside the tunnels, the walls were covered in pedophile symbolism and we found a chamber for blood rituals with recently sacrificed animals. Something very evil is happening in New York."
The 36-second-long clip, however, shows that the so-called nefarious tunnel is simply a railway tunnel. The footage also shows a mattress lying on the ground, an apparent nod to the mattress found at the synagogue that conspiracy theorists claimed was used in the abuse of children. Except that mattress, according to Ryan Degan, a spokesperson for the New York Department of Buildings, was found in a storage area and not the tunnel.
The video also shows scattered clothing as well as an array of spray-painted triangles on the tunnel's wall, which Lucre appears to suggest is pedophile symbolism. The lackluster announcement from Lucre was met with mixed reviews from his fans, who felt the display was nothing more than clickbait.
"In other words he couldn't get into the 'tunnel' he went to investigate below the Temple, so he went wandering through some random tunnels in NYC which are full of random junk," one user wrote.
Others also questioned the validity of Lucre's claims regarding the items shown on film.
"Is this it? 30 seconds? The tunnels are used by the homeless. How much prep work went into this?" another asked. "Symbols are easy to draw. A solid video date/time stamp corresponding to your arrival would make sense. This is a joke."
Some followers did appear to view the investigation as legitimate and called on Lucre to begin looking for other tunnels across the country.
"Oh man this is creepy," one user said. "Makes me wonder if there are tunnels like this under Hollywood. Maybe after this investigation you can head out west. I’m sure San Francisco has its own share of evil tunnels too. Frightening stuff!"
The Daily Dot reached out to the New York Police Department to inquire about Lucre's video but did not receive a reply by press time.
It remains unclear if and when further footage of tunnels in New York will be released by Lucre and his partners.
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