I just came across a pretty shocking case: Lin Ruixiang, the founder of the Yinxin Market, was sentenced to 30 years in prison for operating an underground drug trading platform on the dark web. Back then, the dark web marketplace he built was fairly large, until law enforcement dismantled it.

30 years—this sentence really isn’t light. When you think about it, these illegal trading markets on the dark web may look well hidden, but in the end, they still can’t escape the reach of the law. It feels like a lot of people underestimate law enforcement’s ability to track things, thinking that if you hide on the dark web, you’ll be safe and worry-free—yet you still end up getting caught.

This is also a reminder to everyone involved in illegal activities on the dark web: the risks are really high. Law enforcement’s crackdown on these kinds of cases is only getting stronger.