'Incognito Market' operator booked under 'kingpin statute' for illegal fentanyl sale
Fentanyl
US authorities have arrested a Taiwan national for allegedly facilitating the trade of drugs in the so-called 'Incognito Market'. The man has been charged for facilitating over $100 million in crypto-denominated sales of illegal narcotics including fentanyl.
According to the prosecutors, the 23-year-old Rui-Siang Lin operated Incognito Market under the pseudonym "Pharoah".
He oversaw all of its operations and had "ultimate decision-making authority over every aspect of the multimillion-dollar operation" from its formation in October 2020 to its shutdown in March this year.
"The dedicated prosecutors from the Southern District of New York and our law enforcement partners will pursue criminal actors regardless of whether they operate on street corners or in the dark corners of the internet," said US Attorney Damian Williams in a statement on Monday (May 20).
"The so-called ‘dark web’ is not a safe haven for those who seek to break the law."
The Incognito Market scam: What happened?
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Lin was arrested at New York's John F. Kennedy airport over the weekend.
He faces one count of engaging in a continuing criminal enterprise, one count of narcotics conspiracy, one count of money laundering, and one count of conspiracy to sell adulterated and misbranded medication.
The first charge – often called the "kingpin statute" – carries a mandatory minimum sentence of life in prison.
According to a complaint filed with the US authorities, Lin created and operated Incognito Market while being an undergraduate student at the National Taiwan University.
In March, Incognito Market shut down after an alleged exit scam following which its users were unable to withdraw their funds.
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Administrators of the site then reportedly began extorting vendors, and ordered them to pay a fees ranging from $100 to $20,000, depending on their size, or else risk having their customers’ data leaked.
(With inputs from agencies)