Founder of Incognito Market Rui-Siang Lin Sentenced to 30 Years for $105 Million Cryptocurrency Drug Operation

In March 2024, the darknet marketplace facilitated 640,000 cryptocurrency transactions involving over 400,000 buyer accounts before it was shut down via an exit scam.

Key Takeaways:

Rui-Siang Lin has been sentenced to 30 years for running Incognito Market, which facilitated $105 million worth of cryptocurrency drug transactions from 2020 to 2024.
The platform utilized a unique crypto payment system known as “Incognito Bank” to facilitate BTC and Monero transactions for over 400,000 users.
This sentencing occurs amid the DOJ's ongoing focus on darknet drug-related cases, despite the disbandment of its specialized crypto enforcement unit in 2025.

U.S. District Judge Colleen McMahon, overseeing the case in the Southern District of New York, described it as the most severe drug offense she has handled in her 27 years of service, referring to Lin as a “drug kingpin.”

Lin pled guilty in December 2024 to several charges, including operating a continuing criminal enterprise, narcotics conspiracy, and money laundering. The court also mandated a forfeiture of $105,045,109.67.

Operating under the alias “Pharoah,” Lin managed the market from October 2020 to March 2024. During this time, he facilitated the sale of over 1,000 kilograms of both cocaine and methamphetamine, while also dealing with hundreds of kilograms of other controlled substances, such as fentanyl-laced pills tied to at least one fatal overdose.

“Today's sentence serves as a warning to traffickers: you cannot remain hidden in the dark corners of the Internet,” U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton remarked. “The internet, ‘decentralization,’ ‘blockchain’—none of these technologies permit narcotics trafficking operations.”

incognito market sentence

Rui-Siang Lin, a 24-year-old individual from Taiwan and the creator of the darknet drug platform Incognito Market, has been sentenced to 30 years in federal prison for managing a $105 million cryptocurrency drug enterprise, according to an announcement made by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) on Tuesday.

Anonymous Drug Sales Enabled by Proprietary Crypto Payment System

At the core of Incognito Market's functioning was a custodial crypto wallet system termed “Incognito Bank,” where users could deposit BTC or Monero into their accounts. According to the DOJ, transactions were processed internally between buyer and seller accounts, and the platform earned a 5% commission on every sale. Lin reportedly profited over $6 million from these fees.

In March 2024, Lin executed an exit scam, shutting down the marketplace and seizing at least $1 million of user deposits. He subsequently threatened to expose transaction histories unless vendors paid ransom fees ranging from $100 to $20,000. This incident highlighted that the supposed encryption and message deletion functions of the marketplace never worked, as user data was stored throughout its entire operation.

Investigators traced Bitcoin from the administrator wallet of Incognito to Lin's personal wallet, where it was converted into Monero and transferred to a centralized exchange account in his name, complete with his Taiwanese driver’s license information.

Operational Security Flaws Led to Arrest at JFK

Despite running a complex darknet operation, Lin made several mistakes that revealed his identity. He registered domains to promote Incognito Market using his actual name, phone number, and physical address.

One such domain was partly purchased using 0.00501 BTC from a crypto exchange account that contained his identity documents, directly connecting Lin to the Incognito administrator wallet. Additionally, he maintained a GitHub profile under his real name and saved the operational plans for the marketplace in his personal Gmail account.

Lin was arrested at John F. Kennedy International Airport on May 18, 2024, as he was boarding a flight to Singapore. The investigation involved multiple agencies, including the FBI, the Department of Homeland Security Investigations, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), the FDA Office of Criminal Investigations, the New York Police Department (NYPD), and U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

DEA Special Agent in Charge Frank A. Tarantino III remarked that Lin's choices, prioritizing profits over public health, demonstrated “recklessness and danger, bordering on the unconscionable.”

Sentencing Comes Amid Shifts in DOJ Crypto Enforcement Focus

Lin’s 30-year prison sentence represents one of the most stringent penalties handed down for darknet market operations, second only to the life sentence initially assigned to Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht, who received a pardon from President Trump in January 2025.

In April 2025, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche announced the disbanding of the National Cryptocurrency Enforcement Team and instructed prosecutors to cease actions against exchanges, mixers, and wallets for the behaviors of their users.

Nonetheless, the memo emphasized that cases related to terrorism and narcotics trafficking would continue to be prioritized—areas that directly align with Lin's activities.

At the same time, the DOJ has sustained its efforts in enforcing darknet operations through other means, recently concluding a $400 million forfeiture associated with the Helix cryptocurrency mixer in January 2026.