Incognito Market founder sentenced to 30 years

Rui-Siang Lin, founder of the Incognito Market, has been sentenced to 30 years in prison for operating a large cryptocurrency-based drug marketplace. The platform facilitated more than $105 million in illegal narcotics sales and attracted hundreds of thousands of users, with serious consequences including loss of life.

Dark web marketplace explained

Under the alias “Pharaoh,” Rui-Siang Lin, who was sentenced at the age of 24, ran a global drug trade. In the dark web economy, where credibility and trust were crucial, he managed vendors, settled disputes, and earned commissions behind this online persona.

Incognito Market was a dark web marketplace where illicit products such as heroin, cocaine, methamphetamine, and counterfeit prescription medicines were sold. It was accessed using networks that prioritised privacy. It operated with a structured system and organised payment procedures, which made it more effective and able to handle large-scale activity, in contrast to many similar platforms.

How Incognito Market used cryptocurrency

The Incognito Market relied heavily on cryptocurrency to allow buyers and sellers to avoid regular institutions and financial regulation. Users deposited money using the platform’s own wallet system, known as “Incognito Bank,” which was only released once transactions were completed. Each transaction was subject to a 5 percent commission, making the system profitable and well-organised.

Incognito Market expanded to more than 400,000 buyer accounts and 1,800 vendors worldwide, operating as a large underground network. Over 640,000 cryptocurrency-based transactions were recorded, with drugs moving across borders through digital exchanges before being delivered physically, showing how the platform used the internet to bypass geographic limits.

Drugs sold on Incognito Market

Incognito Market offered a range of illegal drugs, including heroin, cocaine, Lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA), methamphetamine, ketamine, alprazolam, and oxycodone, with prosecutors noting sales of more than 1,000 kilograms each of cocaine and methamphetamine. In January 2022, vendors were permitted to sell opiates, leading to the spread of counterfeit prescription pills, some labelled as oxycodone but later found to contain fentanyl, a highly dangerous substance.

Law enforcement investigation and shutdown

To build their case against Incognito Market, investigators tracked cryptocurrency transactions, made undercover purchases, and examined digital evidence. Prosecutors were particularly focused on Lin’s final actions following the platform’s closure in March 2024.

At least one confirmed death, involving a 27-year-old man in Arkansas who believed he was taking oxycodone but instead consumed fentanyl, was linked by prosecutors to the marketplace. Authorities stated that each transaction contributed to cycles of addiction, loss, and grief in communities, affecting more than 470,000 users and their families.

Guilty plea and charges

Rui-Siang Lin pleaded guilty in December 2024 to conspiring to distribute drugs on a large scale. He also admitted to laundering money and selling contaminated drugs, including pills containing fentanyl.

US District Judge Colleen McMahon described Rui-Siang Lin as a “drug kingpin” and noted that this was the most serious drug case she had encountered in nearly three decades on the bench. The scale of the operation, the profits involved, the deaths linked to it, and the use of cryptocurrency made the case exceptional, and the 30-year sentence was imposed as a deliberate response to its severity.

Asset forfeiture and financial penalties

Lin’s profits from the enterprise were confiscated when he was ordered to forfeit $105,045,109. To reduce the likelihood of him committing cybercrime again, he will serve five years under supervised release after his prison term.

When the network was shut down, Lin allegedly took over $1 million in user deposits and threatened to reveal cryptocurrency addresses and user histories if he was not compensated. The operation came to an abrupt end when he described his actions as extortion in one communication.

The sentencing took place soon after the Department of Justice secured the forfeiture of more than $400 million linked to the Helix crypto mixer, a dark web application. Investigators also carried out seizures connected to BidenCash and other cryptocurrency-related offences at the same time, reflecting a broader pattern of increased enforcement against such platforms.