This isn't the first time "tunneling" has appeared on HN, nor the first that it intersected with the techy/hacker community.
There was the case where a hacker who gave talks at Defcon built a tunnel, and paid someone to continue the work. The worker died and he went to prison [1]. There was some discussion about this case on HN in 2019 [2], and a Darknet Diaries episode about the whole multi-year scenario [3].
Note: The DD Episode link contains pictures
[1] https://www.baltimoresun.com/news/crime/bs-md-nuclear-bunker...