Lagina vs. Knights of Malta: Uncovering 2026’s Portugal Secret!

Rick and Marty Lgina continue searching for clues to a mystery with debated origins, exploring theories that connect the island to European history in search of undeniable proof. Both brothers have spent years investigating one of the most debated treasure mysteries on Earth. Oak Island is a small land mass off the coast of Nova Scotia that guards what many researchers believe to be a deep subterranean vault protected by an elaborate trap system. Pirates took the blame first, followed by the Freemasons, the Vikings, and even Francis Bacon. As the brothers dug deeper, the name of the Knights of Malta kept rising to the surface. Operating as warrior monks, the Order of St. John commanded substantial wealth and advanced engineering skills.
They dominated major military battles in medieval Europe and won through technical expertise.
After enduring the great siege of Malta in 1565 when an advancing Ottoman army tried to wipe them out, these knights built a new fortified city with a network of underground tunnels carved into solid rock. These were not shallow holes, but rather fortified and reinforced chambers built to outlast months of military assault. The Knights stood as the finest tunnel builders of their era. They were among the foremost builders of complex underground systems in that period. When the Lagginina team continued to investigate the reported layered logs and flood drains of the Oak Island money pit, viewers across North America and Europe began paying close attention to the striking similarities.
The history of Portugal shifts the investigation’s focus. In 1580, a man named Antonio, the prior of Katto, briefly claimed the title of King of Portugal. He was a full member of the Knights of Malta, who was trained in their methods and connected to their network. When King Philip II of Spain seized the Portuguese throne, Antonio fled the country carrying royal wealth.
Historical documents suggest he moved gold, religious relics, and artifacts of great historical value. Antonio controlled direct routes to sea captains who were already crossing the Atlantic Ocean. These ships knew uncharted coastlines and could quietly reach a remote, uninhabited island off Nova Scotia without drawing attention. During 2025 and 2026, the team traveled to Malta and Portugal to meet with historians, archaeologists, and tunnel experts. They walked through ancient underground systems carved into limestone to examine the stonework.
firsthand, leading them to propose a theory about a detail that could tie the two continents together. Blue clay serves as a highly significant piece of evidence in the investigation. In Malta, the Knights sealed their underground tunnels with a specific earth compound that was dense, moisture resistant, and nearly watertight. When they needed to capture and store fresh water, this barrier kept it from seeping into the porous rock. This specialized method was commonly utilized by trained builders throughout Europe in the 1600s for managing water. The Lega team pulled core samples from deep inside the Oak Island money pit and found a clay with a mismatched physical composition that performed the identical job of sealing tunnels against flooding water.
Finding this rare construction method on two different continents separated by an ocean strongly indicates a direct human connection. No natural process plants that specific engineering fingerprint in two separate locations, suggesting that the same group of trained people crossed the ocean carrying that knowledge.
Furthermore, a newly discovered button helps point toward the identity of those people. In 2023, the team recovered a small metal button from Oak Island soil.
Experts examined the metal composition and placed it between the 14th and 17th centuries, while visual comparisons suggested a time frame from 1650 to 1675.
Its molded cast design featured a starburst pattern, a distinct symbol that decorated metal buttons worn by European aristocrats during that era.
Finding this item on a Canadian island traces a line back to a specific Mediterranean military religious order.
The group responsible for this construction required wealth, technical capacity, and an urgent reason to build something complex in the middle of the Atlantic.
Pirates did not build waterproof underground seals, nor did they mark their gear with official order insignia.
Armed with the button evidence and historical records from Portugal, the team continued their extensive use of ground penetrating radar. This scanning technology reads through packed soil and solid rock simultaneously. And at 160 ft below the surface of Oak Island, the scanners returned a distinct shape. The anomaly was not a collapsed void or a natural pocket in the earth, but rather a clean rectangular chamber with defined walls. The architectural geometry indicated a man-made structure built to last across centuries that remains sealed and waiting to be uncovered.
The exact contents of the chamber remain entirely unknown, making monetary estimates purely speculative. The vault could hold gold bullion, religious artifacts that vanished from Portuguese royal records after 1580, or historical documents detailing early European exploration in the Americas. This scale of engineering bypasses any rogue pirate with a chest of stolen coins, representing a coordinated withdrawal of wealth by a powerful organization. The site is protected by traps so deadly that six people have lost their lives attempting to reach it over the centuries. Constructing a flooding trap that far underground requires an investment in labor, ships, materials, and water channels that exceeds most pirate halls. The site demands a professional burial carried out by people who practiced this discipline their entire lives and were trained in this specific methodology before crossing the ocean. Rick and Marty Legina are working to decipher what centuries of treasure hunters, archaeologists, and historians could not resolve. Applying strict discipline, they followed the physical evidence across the Atlantic instead of chasing myths. Three separate lines of proof and multiple competing theories indicate that different groups visited the island over a long period. Both brothers are attempting to rediscover the depths early searchers reached before the original pit collapsed as ground scans detected underground anomalies that require further investigation.
Researchers have theorized similarities with Portuguese methods. The recovered button offers new clues about the builders, and the current season of exploration remains unfinished.
The evidence points away from a standard pirate story and toward a secret order fleeing a king to construct a buried vault. Now, two brothers from Michigan refuse to stop digging until they uncover the truth. The contents of the chamber remain a mystery, leaving researchers to anticipate whether they will find gold, lost relics, historical documents or something entirely unexpected.