Influencers are flocking to Jeffrey Epstein's notorious Caribbean island in an effort to profit off the revelations from recently released Department of Justice documents.
Videos showing content creators roaming around Little Saint James, the private island once owned by Epstein, have become increasingly popular, with at least nine posted to the site since 2026 began.
Collectively, they have accumulated more than 52 million views as searches for 'Epstein Island' and 'Little Saint James' reached an all-time high in February, according to Google Trends data.
'The latest release of Epstein files, that created a trend and that trend caused YouTubers to go there to kind of ride on that trend,' Jordan-based influencer Ahmad Aburob told NBC News.
Drone footage and Jet Skis used to access Epstein's island
Much of the videos start off the same, with content creators flying to St. Thomas, the closest neighboring island with an airport and speaking to locals to get tips and rumors about the child predator's island.
They then scope out local Jet Ski and snorkel rentals and swim onto the island's shore or fly drones over it.
Some do not dare to actually set foot on the private island, which Epstein owned from 1998 through his arrest in 2019.
But Aburob said he 'went in very quickly' to make his video 'because I knew it will go viral and I know it really fits my usual content.'
But others who went to visit the island are known more for prank videos or for their content exploring government conspiracy theories.
YouTuber teases return to island for viral stunt
Junior Sangare even admitted in his own video that he knows 'this is a different side, it's not really me pranking.'
The YouTuber opted not to go on the island, but told his followers if he gets 100,000 likes 'I will come back here, ding-dong ditch this building and spend the night on this island without trying to get caught.'
Many of those who do go on the island seem particularly interested in a structure that has been dubbed 'the temple,' though in more recent videos, the building appears to have been painted over and boarded up.
'Ungodly things happened here,' YouTuber Ash Alk claimed as he walked around the building in mid-February. 'It feels so weird being here.'
Permit records obtained by NBC News show the structure was pitched as a music pavilion, complete with a grand piano, a living room and a bathroom - but the building's final design ended up very different than what was originally pitched.
Mystery deepens over alleged tunnels and 'trap door'
Ben Lisi, meanwhile, was set on finding potential tunnels under the island in his video posted last month.
He did not find any, and none of the Department of Justice files have confirmed whether there were any tunnels under the island - though they include photos of a 'trap door' and make mention of a 'tunnel.'
He told NBC News he created his video in hopes of raising awareness about the case, while still being 'light-hearted and still adventurous' for his younger audience.
'Even though it's just a silly video and we didn't actually sneak on the island or anything, but we just saw it, I think it still brings more attention to it,' he said.
'And hopefully, in some small way, can bring justice to the victims and help expose or continue to bring light to what's going on behind closed doors.'
Yet YouTube videos featuring content creators visiting Little Saint James have been circulating for years, with Andy Bracco making a video that accumulated 1.5 million views of him going to the island in 2020.
He said he spent more than 60 days doing research on how to enter it discreetly and how to find someone to take him to the island, and since he has gone, many other content creators have come to him for advice on how to get onto the island.
'I think it's going to unfortunately become a bit of a trend,' he said.
'It was easier [to visit], but now it's probably going to get harder, they're going to start to wrap up their security a little bit just because of the frequency of people trying to get on the island.'
Luke Rudkowski also filmed himself going onto the island shortly after federal authorities raided it in 2019.
He said he opted to make the trip after seeing a drone video of the property that he said captured footage of someone he thought looked like Epstein.
'I found it to be something that was incredibly important for public interest,' he asserted.
At the time that he went, there was still a lot of Epstein's furniture and decorations left behind, his video shows. But what most caught his attention, he said was the odd furniture and what appeared to be gargoyle statues scattered around the private island.
Epstein also had white gargoyle statues in front of his home in Palm Beach, Florida, according to recently released files.
Now, years later, Rudkowski said he saw some of the recent videos, but has mixed feelings about them.
'When there's so much that the government hasn't given us answers to, people are going to naturally try to fill that void,' he said.
'But if we had a competent DOJ that actually would have done the proper job here and investigated it, we wouldn't have a lot of these independent content creators using the situation as they are for this type of adventurism that they're highlighting on YouTube.'
'But at the same time, I'm the person who kind of did it before anybody else,' Rudkowski acknowledged.
Epstein initially bought Little Saint James in 1998 and then purchased a neighboring island, Great Saint James, in 2016.
His estate then owned the property until it was put up for sale in 2022, and one year later billionaire Stephen Deckoff purchased the two islands for $60 million.
In a news release detailing the purchase at the time, Deckoff said he planned to develop a 'state-of-the-art, five-star, world-class luxury 25-room resort' that was scheduled to open last year.
It now remains unclear whether any of the influencers will face prosecution for setting foot on the island and how Deckoff's plans to develop the island are moving forward.
But a spokesperson for the Virgin Islands Department of Planning and Natural Resources told NBC News it has not 'received any plans for the development of a resort on either Little or Great Saint James as of March 2026.'
The Daily Mail has reached out to Deckoff's firm, Black Diamond Capital Management, for comment.
The Virgin Islands Police Department could not be reached for comment.