A 23-year-old Taiwanese man is due to appear in New York on Monday, accused of allowing the sale of more than $100 million in illegal drugs through a site he allegedly founded on the “dark web”, the clandestine part of Internet.
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Rui-Siang Lin, also known as “Pharoah,” was arrested at JFK Airport in New York on Saturday, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
“Rui-Siang Lin is accused of being the architect of Incognito, a + dark web + project valued at $ 100 million aimed at trafficking lethal drugs to the United States and around the world,” declared the Minister of Justice, Merrick Garland in a press release.
Hundreds of kilos of cocaine, methamphetamines, and other drugs have been sold on “Incognito Market” since its launch in October 2020, the press release states.
Promising anonymity, the site “enabled the purchase of lethal drugs and fraudulently prescribed medications on a global scale,” said James Smith, a senior FBI official in New York.
Customers of “Incognito Market” were put in contact on the site with the actual sellers of these drugs and could compose their basket based on heroin, cocaine, LSD, MDMA, or various opiates.
Sellers paid a commission of 5% of each sale to “Incognito Market” for this connection, generating millions of dollars in profits for Rui-Siang Lin, according to the US Department of Justice.
He faces life imprisonment.
