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A Hyattsville man could face 30 years in prison after pleading guilty Tuesday to conspiracy to participate in gang racketeering, according to federal court documents.

Jorge Rigoberto Amador, 33, of Hyattsville, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Greenbelt to charges of racketeering that included being a co-conspirator in the 2005 murder of 15-year-old Jose Arias, according to the court documents.

Amador, who also is known as "Santo Diablo," is a member of the gang, Mara Salvatrucha, or MS-13, court documents state.

The U.S. Department of Justice has been seeking the death penalty against Amador since September 2005, said Amador's defense attorney, Laura Kelsey Rhodes, on Tuesday.

"We are extremely gratified that the justice department changed its original stance under Attorney General [Roberto] Gonzales that this man should be put to death," Rhodes said.

On March 26, 2005, Amador fired shots at members of rival gang, "Lewisdale Crew," striking and killing Arias at the intersection of 20th Avenue and Van Buren Street, in Hyattsville, following a dispute between the gangs, Rhodes said.

Amador also is linked to numerous gang-related assaults and attempted murders that occurred between September 2004 and March 2005, according to court documents. In September 2004, Amador was involved in street fights outside Langley Park's Coco Cabana Club with members of a rival gang, "Street Thug Criminals," and at the Hispanic Heritage Festival in Hyattsville with an alleged member of the "18th Street" gang, the documents state.

Amador also was involved in an October 2004 fight outside an apartment on University Boulevard in which one individual was cut with either a beer bottle or screwdriver, according to court documents.

Amador will be sentenced Nov. 30.

E-mail Natalie McGill at nmcgill@gazette.net.