Incognito Market Mastermind Handed a 30-Year Prison Sentence

A U.S. federal court has sentenced the operator of one of the world’s largest dark web drug markets to 30 years in prison.
The U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Jay Clayton, announced on Tuesday that Rui-Siang Lin was convicted for running Incognito Market, a global online hard drug marketplace. Lin pleaded guilty on the 16th of December, 2024, and was sentenced by the U.S. District Judge, Colleen McMahon.
Incognito Market operated on the dark web from October 2020 until 2024, when it was closed down. It was used globally to buy and sell illegal drugs with cryptocurrency. Investigators revealed that the platform facilitated more than $105 million in narcotics sales when it was in operation.

According to court records, the platform sold different kinds of drugs on tons including more than 1,000 kilograms of cocaine, 1,000 kilograms of methamphetamine, and hundreds of kilograms of other controlled substances. The marketplace also sold counterfeit “oxycodone,” some of which was later found to contain fentanyl.

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Lin, a 24-year-old Taiwanese national, was the mastermind of the platform and disguised online as “Pharaoh” while he acted as the decision-maker. He supervised vendors, customers, and site administrators and structured the operation to resemble a legitimate e-commerce business with branding, advertising, and customer support.
The reports also shared that the founder led a four-day training session for St. Lucian police officers on cybercrime and cryptocurrency. He later boasted about the training on his personal Facebook page, despite secretly running his own major criminal enterprise.

The Collapse of Incognito Market

In March 2024, Lin abruptly shut down Incognito Market and stole at least $1 million from users who had funds stored in the platform’s internal bank. Prosecutors said he also attempted to extort the vendors and buyers on the platform.

During the last days of running the platform, he threatened the users that he would expose their transaction histories and cryptocurrency addresses unless they paid him. During sentencing, Judge McMahon described Incognito Market as “a business that made you a drug kingpin.” She added that it was the most serious drug case she had encountered in nearly three decades on the bench.
In addition to the 30-year prison sentence, Lin was ordered to serve five years of supervised release and forfeit $105,045,109.67.

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