text: does anybody know what the asian criminal enterprise (ace) is? some friends were talking about organized crime but nobody knew much about this group. i was surprised to know that asians broke the law. in recent years, experts (fbi) have begun to recognize that many aces are organized crime structures that merely lack a formal name. a number of years ago, the fbi developed a definition of an asian criminal enterprise that defines the concept as:  "a continuing criminal enterprise, motivated by profit. criminally diverse, the members engage in a variety of hi-tech organized criminal activities. they are multi-jurisdictional and/or international in nature. they engage in a pattern of racketeering activities, which usually focus on one type of highly profitable criminal activity while committing other ancillary crimes to further the enterprise and/or for personal gain. the enterprise is often comprised of a network of highly mobile, diverse and loosely linked criminal cells. the lack of structured hierarchy and membership with many of these aces creates a challenge for law enforcement." the management of asian and african criminal enterprise sub-programs is handled at fbi headquarters by the asian/african criminal enterprise unit of the organized crime section. the mission of this unit is to reduce the threat to society posed by identified criminal enterprises whose members originate predominantly from eastern and southeastern asian nations.