May 28, 2024: Feds arrest alleged owner of a dark web market at JFK Airport
Major Stories
The alleged operator of Incognito, a dark web market that sold fake prescription drugs, could spend life in prison.
On May 18, federal authorities arrested a Taiwanese man alleged to be the owner of Incognito Market at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York. Incognito was a dark web marketplace notorious for the sale of narcotics, including illicit drugs disguised and sold as legitimate prescription medicines. According to the Southern District of New York, Incognito sold more than $100 million in narcotics between October 2020 and its closure in March 2024. The defendant is charged with engaging in a continuing criminal enterprise, which carries a minimum sentence of life in prison, as well as narcotics conspiracy, money laundering, and conspiracy to sell adulterated and misbranded medication.
On May 21, the Food and Drug Administration’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research hosted “FDA Drug Topics: Fraudulent Drugs: You’re Taking What?,” educating healthcare providers about dangerous health products patients may be using. Review the presentation materials here.
A "splash" page from Incognito with a featured ad for Adderall (Source: U.S. Attorney's Office of the Southern District of New York)
Domestic News
A California man who sold illicit drugs via dark web and the messaging app Wickr received a 14-year sentence.
On May 17, a federal court in Florida sentenced Tenzin Orgil of Orange County, California to 168 months in prison for making MDMA and methamphetamine and distributing illicit drugs, including fentanyl in the form of fake oxycodone pills, on dark web marketplaces and on Wickr, an encrypted messaging platform. Using the vendor names iEUROPA, iUSA, iAMERICA, UNITEDAIRLINES and SVR667, Orgil sold cocaine, MDMA, heroin, fentanyl, and methamphetamine to customers all over the United States.
Investigators in Hunt County, Texas raided a clandestine pill press operation in Lone Oak, seizing a variety of illicit drugs and substances used to press illicit pills.
International News
More fake Botox found in Mexico.
Mexico’s drug regulator, COFEPRIS, issued an alert about two lots of black market Botox one of which was sold in English packaging. The agency warned that there was no way to confirm the contents of the injections or whether they had been made in sterile conditions.
COFEPRIS issued an alert about black market Botox in May 2024.