Evacuations At Florida Mall After Reports Of A Shooting
WHITFIELD: And this just in to the CNN NEWSROOM. Police have evacuated a mall in Boca Raton, Florida after report of a shooting there. This Twitter user taking video of the scene at the Town Center Mall. Officials say there is no active shooter. But people are being told to shelter in place. S.W.A.T. teams are now searching the mall. Listen to this witness seeing people trying to escape.</s>JEN FOGLIA, WITNESS: I was clearly standing in the middle of the store. And I just saw like a hoard of people running in. And I heard somebody yell bomb. And I was like, [mm-mm]. So, I turned around and I was just like, everybody get the -- out. Run, run, run, run.</s>WHITFIELD: So, you just heard her say bomb. But again, it is still not clear what has happened at the Town Center Mall in Boca, Raton, Florida. Police have received reports of shots fired. Tonight, go inside the discovery of a Hezbollah terrorist cell in North Carolina and the unprecedented case investigators built against it to bring its members to justice before they could carry out an attack on U.S. soil. It's an all-new episode of "Declassified: Untold Stories of American Spies". Here's a preview.</s>ROBERT CLIFFORD, FORMER ASST. SPECIAL AGENT IN CHARGE, FBI: So, when you look at this case in its pieces, it's cigarette smuggling, so what. They had credit card fraud and the identity fraud, yawn, and that's by design. It allows this organization to fly below the radar. But when you realize that you're dealing with terrorists, that they're going to exploit this innocuous criminal activity with lethal effectiveness, it changes the entire perspective of this. They're taking the proceeds from these crimes and sending it to a terrorist organization, that prior to 9/11, killed more Americans than any terrorist organization. We continued to watch them for a long period of time without moving against them to ensure that this case was successful. My concern was that sleeper cells could be activated to conduct an attack based on something totally unrelated to where they are. When you're trained to think in terms of worst case, worst case is an attack on the homeland.</s>WHITFIELD: All right, joining us right now, Robert Clifford. He's a former assistant special agent in charge for the FBI. And he was one of the key investigators in this Hezbollah sleeper cell case. Good to see you.</s>CLIFFORD: Thank you.</s>WHITFIELD: So, this episode takes us inside the investigation of a Hezbollah terrorist cell in North Carolina of all places. That's very unlikely for most to think where a terrorist cell would be operating. So, how did -- how did you discover them?</s>CLIFFORD: Well, in 1995, as chief of the Hezbollah unit at FBI headquarters in Washington, D.C., I knew that Hezbollah had sent a dangerous operative to Charlotte, North Carolina. When I arrived in Charlotte as the supervisor for counterterrorism, we made a concerted investigation on this individual. And what did we find, seven other individuals known and suspected Hezbollah members in Charlotte. What we found was a Hezbollah sleeper cell.</s>WHITFIELD: So, what was the cell tasked to do out of Charlotte?</s>CLIFFORD: The cell had two missions; the first, to embed themselves deep into the community and to engage in criminal activity to raise funds to send to Hezbollah to further attacks overseas. Their second mission was to standby and if activated, to conduct a terrorist attack in the United States.</s>WHITFIELD: So, it was that low level, you know, kind of criminal activity that really, you know, gave you a hook to go after this terror cell. You ended up approaching the case like you would a motorcycle gang or the mafia. Those are some examples we're told about. Explain how that worked.</s>CLIFFORD: Thank you. Yes. They're involved in the activity. It was violent or robbery that would attract the attention of the local police nor was it of such a level that would attract the attention of the FBI. It was credit card fraud, cigarette tax evasion, insurance fraud, immigration fraud. And we knew that if we could conduct an investigation on them, we would be able to build criminal cases, but not individually. We had to build it as an organization and then attack the group as one and take it out with one hit.</s>WHITFIELD: Robert Clifford, all so fascinating, thank you so much for your time and explaining. We're looking forward to watching this all- new episode of "Declassified: Untold Stories of American Spies," tonight, 9:00 Eastern and Pacific only on CNN.