Cryptocurrency Dark Web Drug Marketplace Operator Rui-Siang Lin Sentenced to 30 Years in Prison

BlockBeats News, February 4th, according to CoinDesk, according to a statement from the United States Southern District of New York Attorney's Office, the alleged operator of the dark web drug trading market "Incognito Market," Rui-Siang Lin, was sentenced to 30 years of U.S. federal prison on Tuesday, marking the formal closure of one of the largest-scale online drug market cases since the "Silk Road" case.

The U.S. prosecutors said that the operator of the dark web market Incognito Market had used cryptocurrency and anonymous tools to conceal their identity, but investigators eventually linked him to the platform through domain records and digital traces.

Rui-Siang Lin's online alias was "Pharaoh." In December 2024, he pleaded guilty to multiple charges, including drug crime conspiracy, money laundering, and conspiracy to sell counterfeit and misbranded drugs. Prosecutors said that the platform facilitated over $105 million in illegal drug transactions from October 2020 to March 2024, completing over 640,000 transactions and serving hundreds of thousands of buyers worldwide.