Sterling Man Charged With Impeding ISIS Terror Probe

ALEXANDRIA, VA — A Sterling man has been charged with impeding a federal terrorism investigation by destroying evidence as FBI agents attempted to search his home, according to federal prosecutors. A federal grand jury this week indicted Sean Andrew Duncan, 21, for obstruction of justice, alleging that he altered, destroyed, concealed and covered up a thumb drive and memory chip as FBI agents executed a search warrant, said prosecutors in the District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia.

The FBI began to investigate Duncan in February 2016 after being informed by a relative that he had converted to Islam and may heve been radicalized, prosecutors said in a statement.

"Duncan voiced his approval of westerners being beheaded in the Middle East," they said, and was denied entry into Turkey and returned to the United States.

The FBI also learned that Duncan had been in contact with a woman who was detained in an unnamed foreign country for planning to travel to join ISIS, radio station WTOP reported. Via social media, Duncan forwarded to the woman a link to a website with instructions on building weapons and bombs.

Duncan's name and phone number also turned up in the notes of an ISIS recruiter who was arrested in October in an unnamed foreign country, prosecutors said.

On Dec. 29, FBI agents knocked on Duncan's door to execute a search warrant. He fled out the back door, and as agents cornered him, he threw a clear plastic bag over their heads, prosecutors said.

It contained a memory chip that had been snapped into pieces "and placed in a liquid substance that produced frothy white bubbles," prosecutors said. The agents also recovered a broken casing for a thumb drive from Duncan’s pants pocket.

If convicted, Duncan faces up to 20 years in prison on the obstruction charge.

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