The ringleader of a group that looted New York City’s Diamond District for years by hijacking delivery trucks at gunpoint was found guilty in federal court on Monday.

Hector River, 57, was convicted on three counts of robbery or attempted robbery, one count of conspiracy to commit Hobbs Act Robbery and two counts of using and carrying a firearm during crimes of violence between 2002 and 2008.

With each of the robbery charges carrying a maximum sentence of 20 years, Rivera is facing the possibility of spending the rest of his life in prison. He is one of 12 men arrested last year in connection with the December 2007 hijacking of a truck full of diamonds.

Rivera was also convicted of the Nov. 29, 2005 gunpoint robbery of a wholesale diamond business located at 580 Fifth Ave., the Dec. 20, 2007 robbery of a FedEx truck and the attempted hijacking and robbery of a second FedEx tractor-trailer truck on Dec. 4, 2008, which was the night that the entire group was arrested.

Before catching the villains on Dec. 4, 2008, the FBI had noted Rivera and an accomplice driving past a warehouse on New York's Long Island, and were able to intercept various communications between him and his gang of diamond robbers,,which eventually lead to their capture