The U.S. Department of Justice arrested a Taiwanese man who ran a dark web drug trafficking site and ran off with users' virtual currency.

Ruisiang Lin, a 23-year-old Taiwanese national, was arrested at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport on May 18, 2024, for operating the dark web drug trading platform ' Incognito Market ' and helping customers around the world purchase illegal drugs totaling more than $100 million (approximately 15.6 billion yen). Lin operated under the name 'Pharoah' on the platform and is said to have made millions of dollars (hundreds of billions of yen) in personal profits.

Southern District of New York | “Incognito Market” Owner Arrested For Operating One Of The Largest Illegal Narcotics Marketplaces On The Internet | United States Department of Justice
https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdny/pr/incognito-market-owner-arrested-operating-one-largest-illegal-narcotics-marketplaces

Owner of Incognito dark web drugs market arrested in New York
https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/owner-of-incognito-dark-web-drugs-market-arrested-in-new-york/

Incognito Market is a drug trading platform established on the dark web in October 2020 and has been a place for the buying and selling of a wide variety of illegal drugs for about four years. According to technology media BleepingComputer, Incognito Market has sold and bought drugs worth more than $100 million in total, including 295 kg of methamphetamine , 364 kg of cocaine , 112 kg of amphetamine , and 92 kg of MDMA .

The unique feature of Incognito Market is that it was designed to facilitate seamless drug transactions over the Internet. It incorporates features found in legitimate e-commerce services, such as the ability for vendors to brand their products, the ability to advertise their products, and customer service, and users who logged in could search for the drugs they wanted from a large number of products.

You can see what Incognito Market actually looked like in the screenshot below.

Some of the drugs sold on Incognito Market were mislabeled. In November 2023, undercover agents obtained drugs sold on Incognito Market as the painkiller ' oxycodone .' Analysis of the drugs revealed that they were in fact fentanyl , a drug with a high risk of overdose death.

However, in March 2024, Incognito Market users suddenly reported that they could not withdraw their cryptocurrency. In response, the operator of Incognito Market, who calls himself 'Pharaoh,' claimed that this was due to a change in the withdrawal system, but it was later revealed that Pharaoh had carried out an exit scam in which he ran off with users' cryptocurrency. In addition, it was revealed that Pharaoh had threatened vendors who sold drugs on the platform, saying that he would make their transaction information and private messages public if they did not pay the ransom.

Dark web drug trading site steals users' cryptocurrency and threatens to release drug transaction records if ransom is not paid - GIGAZINE

On May 18, Lin, who is believed to have been running Incognito Market under the name Pharaoh, was arrested at John F. Kennedy International Airport. Lin is a 23-year-old Taiwanese man who was the operator and had the final decision-making authority for Incognito Market until it was closed in March. The Department of Justice said of Lin, 'Lin controlled more than 1,000 vendors, more than 200,000 customers, and at least one employee who helped manage the site.'

Attorney General Merrick Garland said, 'Drug traffickers are mistaken in thinking the dark web allows them to operate outside the law. As charged, Lin Ruiying was the founder of Incognito Market, a $100 million dark web scheme that smuggled deadly drugs throughout the United States and around the world. The long arm of the law extends to the dark web, and we will bring to justice those who seek to hide their crimes there.'

Lin is charged with engaging in a continuing criminal enterprise, which carries a possible life sentence, and also faces charges of drug conspiracy, money laundering and conspiracy to sell adulterated or misbranded drugs.