Dark-web marketplace founder handed a 30-year prison sentence
The US witnessed a landmark court decision with the sentencing of Rui-Siang Lin, the founder and operator of the Incognito Market online drug marketplace, to 30 years in prison. The 24-year-old Taiwanese national was additionally ordered to forfeit more than $105 million and given five years of supervised release.
Lin was described as one of the most prolific online narcotics traffickers in the world. Over at least four years, the Lin oversaw substantial e-commerce activity totaling hundreds of millions of dollars. He launched the Incognito Market platform in October 2020, using the Tor browser’s anonymity network in an effort to avoid detection by law enforcement.
Between October 2020 and the shutdown of the site in March 2024, Lin enabled the sale of more than 2 tons of restricted narcotics. The platform also sold counterfeit narcotics linked to the death of a 27-year-old buyer.
Authorities said Incognito Market served more than 400,000 customers and worked with roughly 1,800 vendors. The site processed over 640,000 individual drug transactions and accumulated more than $105 million in a self-controlled cryptocurrency reserve. In March 2024, Lin allegedly stole at least $1 million from this account before taking the marketplace offline. He also reportedly attempted to extort additional money from users and vendors by threatening to release the site’s internal data publicly.
Lin, who operated online under the alias “Pharaoh,” is thought to be the author of the Incognito Market code. While simultaneously overseeing the illicit drug operation, Lin also led a 4-day training program for police officers on cybercrime and cryptocurrency.
The judge overseeing the case, Colleen McMahon, described Incognito Market as the most serious drug case she had seen in her 30-year career.
Contrary to popular belief, dark web platforms, mainly Tor, are not “unstoppable”. Although the onion routing network can offer secure communication and browsing for privacy-focused users, it does not provide a permanent safe haven for illegal activity. Before Lin, many other dark web criminals have been arrested and handed hefty penalties, but Lin’s case stands out as one of the biggest in effect and harshest in sentencing.
