Law enforcement agencies must spend more time and money fighting Asian crime syndicates, which are becoming one of the most powerful criminal forces in the United States, the FBI director says. Asian organized crime groups traditionally choose victims in their own ethnic community, FBI Director William Sessions told a gathering of business leaders Friday. ``Now they are extending their tentacles out to the rest of American society,'' he said. ``Indeed, Asian crime groups are networking and interacting not only with each other but with La Cosa Nostra and Colombian drug cartels as well,'' he said. The FBI first became aware of the extent of Asian organized crime when agents seized 900 pounds of 90 percent pure heroin worth more than $1 billion in February 1989, Sessions said. ``Unfortunately, Asian criminal organizations are gaining larger and stronger footholds around the country,'' Session said. Japanese, Vietnamese and Chinese organized crime groups are the strongest in the United States, he said.
