Taiwanese operator of Incognito Market sentenced to 30 years over $105M darknet drug ring

A Taiwanese man was sentenced to 30 years for running Incognito Market, a major darknet drug site that sold over $105 million in illegal drugs.

Rui-Siang Lin (24) was sentenced to 30 years in prison for running Incognito Market, a major darknet drug marketplace that sold over one ton of narcotics. The Taiwanese man pled guilty in December 2024.

“United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Jay Clayton, announced that RUI-SIANG LIN was sentenced to 30 years in prison for conspiring to distribute narcotics, money laundering, and conspiring to sell adulterated and misbranded medication, in connection with LIN’s ownership and operation of the Incognito Market, an online narcotics marketplace that sold more than one ton of narcotics before its closure in March 2024.” reads the press release published by DoJ.

Incognito Market ran on the dark web from 2020 to 2024 and sold over $105 million in drugs worldwide. Operated by Rui-Siang Lin under the alias “Pharaoh,” the site trafficked massive amounts of cocaine, meth, and other narcotics, including fentanyl-laced pills. Lin controlled every part of the operation, from vendors to customers.

The marketplace worked like a polished online shop for drugs. Users logged in, browsed thousands of listings, and paid with crypto. Vendors paid a 5% fee on each sale, the platform supported a built-in crypto “bank” to handle payments and kept buyers and sellers anonymous.

LIN co-founded Incognito Market in October 2020, took control by early 2022, and shut it down in March 2024 while operating from places including St. Lucia. Despite running a major dark web drug market, he even led a local police training on cybercrime and crypto. Under his leadership, Incognito grew to over 400,000 buyers, 1,800 vendors, and more than 640,000 drug transactions. He allowed opiate sales, including fake “oxycodone” that was actually fentanyl, linked to at least one fatal overdose. When closing the site, LIN stole over $1 million in user funds and tried to extort users by threatening to expose their data.

“In imposing the sentence, Judge McMahon stated to the defendant that Incognito Market was “a business that made [him] a drug kingpin,” and that this was the “most serious drug crime I have ever been confronted with in 27.5 years.”” continues the press release.

Along with the prison sentence, LIN received five years of supervised release and was ordered to forfeit about $105 million.

“Rui-Siang Lin was one of the world’s most prolific drug traffickers, using the internet to sell more than $105 million of illegal drugs throughout this country and across the globe,” said U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton.  “While Lin made millions, his offenses had devastating consequences.  He is responsible for at least one tragic death, and he exacerbated the opioid crisis and caused misery for more than 470,000 narcotics users and their families.  Today’s sentence puts traffickers on notice: you cannot hide in the shadows of the Internet.  And our larger message is simple: the internet, ‘decentralization,’ ‘blockchain’—any technology—is not a license to operate a narcotics distribution business.”

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Pierluigi Paganini

(SecurityAffairs – hacking, dark web)