The arrest of a 23-year-old Taiwanese man comes amid allegations that he sold illicit substances worth at least $100 million on the dark web via a platform called the “Incognito Market.”
The Justice Department described Rui-Siang Lin, also known as “Pharoah,” as “one of the largest illegal narcotics marketplaces on the internet.” Rui-Siang Lin was arrested at John F. Kennedy Airport in New York on Saturday and was scheduled to appear in court on Monday.
“As alleged, Rui-Siang Lin was the architect of Incognito, a $100 million dark web scheme to traffic deadly drugs to the United States and around the world,” Attorney General Merrick Garland stated in a statement.
The Justice Department claims that Incognito Market, an online dark web marketplace that allowed users to acquire and sell illegal substances anonymously, was shut down in March.
Since its introduction in October 2020, hundreds of pounds of drugs, including cocaine and methamphetamines, have been sold on Incognito Market, according to the report.
James Smith, an associate director in the FBI’s New York office, stated that Lin’s accused operation “offered the purchase of lethal drugs and fraudulent prescription medication on a global scale under the promise of anonymity.”
Users of Incognito Market had access to hundreds of listings for illicit drugs, such as alprazolam, heroin, cocaine, MDMA, LSD, oxycodone, methamphetamines, and ketamine.
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According to the Justice Department, Incognito Market has “many features of legitimate e-commerce sites, such as branding, advertising, and customer service.” Several pictures from the website, including the splash page, are included in the indictment.
The Department of Justice said that vendors gave five percent of each sale’s purchase price to “Incognito Market,” giving Lin millions of dollars in earnings.
Lin can spend the rest of his life behind bars if found guilty of drug conspiracy.
During a routine briefing on Tuesday, Jeff Liu, a spokesman for Taipei’s foreign ministry, stated that Lin had been employed since November at Taiwan’s embassy in St Lucia, an Eastern Caribbean country and one of the Asian island’s few allies.
Instead of serving in the military, which is required of Taiwanese men, he had requested to serve as a member of the embassy’s technical corps and had “behaved normally.”
Lin filed for leave and departed St. Lucia on May 18, anticipating his release in July, according to Liu.
He added that Taiwan was closely following the situation. “I was scheduled to go to Singapore via New York when he was arrested by the police in New York,” he said.
“This arrest underscores the dedicated, ongoing efforts of law enforcement to identify and dismantle illicit drug networks operating from every shadowy recess of the marketplace,” NYPD Commissioner Edward A. Caban stated.
