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Incognito Market Founder Rui-Siang Lin Sentenced to 30 Years for $105M Crypto Drug Operation

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The darknet market processed 640,000 cryptocurrency transactions throughout greater than 400,000 purchaser accounts earlier than an exit rip-off shut it down in March 2024.

Rui-Siang Lin, the 24-year-old Taiwanese founding father of darknet drug market Incognito Market, has been sentenced to 30 years in federal prison for working a $105 million crypto-powered narcotics operation, the U.S. Department of Justice introduced on Tuesday.

Key Takeaways:

– Lin acquired 30 years for operating Incognito Market, which processed $105 million in cryptocurrency drug transactions between 2020 and 2024.

– The platform used a proprietary crypto cost system known as “Incognito Bank” to deal with BTC and Monero transactions for over 400,000 consumers.

– The sentencing arrives because the DOJ continues to prioritize darknet narcotics instances regardless of disbanding its devoted crypto enforcement unit in 2025.

U.S. District Judge Colleen McMahon, presiding within the Southern District of New York, known as the case probably the most critical drug crime she had encountered in over 27 years on the bench, labeling Lin a “drug kingpin.”

Lin pleaded responsible in December 2024 to costs together with partaking in a unbroken legal enterprise, narcotics conspiracy, and cash laundering. The court docket additionally ordered $105,045,109.67 in forfeiture.

Operating beneath the alias “Pharoah,” Lin ran {the marketplace} from October 2020 by means of March 2024. He facilitated gross sales of greater than 1,000 kilograms every of cocaine and methamphetamine, alongside a whole lot of kilograms of different managed substances, together with fentanyl-laced drugs linked to at the very least one overdose dying.

“Today’s sentence places traffickers on discover: you can not conceal within the shadows of the Internet,” U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton said. “The web, ‘decentralization,’ ‘blockchain’ — any know-how — isn’t a license to function a narcotics distribution enterprise.”

Proprietary Crypto Payment System Enabled Anonymous Drug Sales on Incognito Market

At the middle of Incognito Market’s operations was a custodial crypto pockets system known as “Incognito Bank,” the place customers deposited BTC or Monero into on-site accounts, in accordance to the DOJ. Transactions have been processed internally between purchaser and vendor accounts, and the platform collected a 5% fee on each sale. According to court docket ruling particulars, Lin pocketed over $6 million in income from price compensations.

In March 2024, Lin shut down {the marketplace} in an exit rip-off, stealing at the very least $1 million held in person deposits and threatening to publish transaction histories until distributors paid extortion charges starting from $100 to $20,000. The scheme revealed that {the marketplace}’s promised encryption and message deletion options had by no means functioned — person information had been retained all through the platform’s whole operation.

According to court docket filings, investigators traced Bitcoin from Incognito’s administrator pockets to Lin’s private pockets, the place it was transformed to Monero and deposited right into a centralized alternate account registered in his title, full along with his Taiwanese driver’s license and private particulars.

Lin’s Operational Security Failures Led to His Arrest at JFK

Despite operating a complicated darknet platform, Lin made essential errors that uncovered his identification. He registered domains to promote Incognito Market utilizing his actual title, telephone quantity, and bodily tackle.

One area buy was partially paid utilizing 0.00501 BTC from a crypto alternate account containing his identification paperwork, straight linking Lin to the Incognito administrator pockets. He additionally maintained a GitHub account beneath his personal title and saved {the marketplace}’s operational diagram to his private Gmail.

He was arrested at John F. Kennedy International Airport on May 18, 2024, whereas transiting to Singapore. The investigation concerned the FBI, Homeland Security Investigations, the DEA, the FDA Office of Criminal Investigations, the NYPD, and U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

DEA Special Agent in Charge Frank A. Tarentino III said Lin’s actions of prioritizing income over public well being have been “reckless and harmful, however unconscionable.”

Sentencing Arrives Amid Shifting DOJ Crypto Enforcement Priorities

Lin’s 30-year sentence stands as one of many harshest penalties for darknet market operations. It’s second solely to the life sentence initially given to Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht — who was pardoned by President Trump in January 2025.

In April 2025, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche issued a memo disbanding the National Cryptocurrency Enforcement Team and directing prosecutors to cease pursuing instances towards exchanges, mixers, and wallets for the acts of their finish customers.

However, the memo explicitly maintained give attention to instances involving terrorism and narcotics trafficking — classes that squarely captured Lin’s conduct.

Meanwhile, the DOJ has continued darknet enforcement on different fronts, finalizing a $400 million forfeiture tied to the Helix cryptocurrency mixer in January 2026.

The publish Incognito Market Founder Rui-Siang Lin Sentenced to 30 Years for $105M Crypto Drug Operation appeared first on Cryptonews.

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