  We explore the possibility that the astrophysical neutrinos are produced in
$pp$-interactions with a gas cloud near the source acting as a beam dump, which
is sufficiently dense to significantly attenuate the associated gamma-ray flux
through pair-production on this gas. In this way, such sources could
potentially supply the astrophysical neutrino flux whilst avoiding the existing
constraints on the non-blazar contribution to the extragalactic gamma-ray
background. After defining our model, we implement a Monte Carlo simulation and
apply this to different scenarios. First, we investigate a set of active
galaxies which exhibit signs of obscuration. We find that, currently, the
expected neutrino flux from these objects in our model is below the existing
exclusion limits, but can already constrain the amount of protons accelerated
in such sources. Second, we investigate the diffuse neutrino flux generated by
a population of obscured sources. We find that such a population can indeed
alleviate the tension with the extragalactic background light. We discuss the
possibility that ultra-luminous infrared galaxies represent such a source
class.
