A MEMBER of the notorious MS-13 street gang known as Animal who admitted to the 2015 killing of a teenage boy in the US, was sentenced to 40 years in prison, officials said.

The US Attorney’s Office in Massachusetts announced that 23-year-old Joel Martinez, who went by the street name “Animal,” will be subject to deportation once he’s released from federal prison, the New York Post reports.

Martinez pleaded guilty in December to RICO conspiracy and admitted stabbing 15-year-old Irvin Javier de Paz Castro to death on September 20, 2015, according to prosecutors.

The US Attorney’s Office said Martinez was secretly recorded by a co-operating witness when he acknowledged being a member of MS-13 and admitted his role in the killing.

The video, posted by the Boston Globe, shows the informant coaxing the confession out of Martinez.

“I stabbed the culero [wuss] three times,” the 23-year-old said in the recording, according to the US Attorney’s Office. “He stared at me and he asked me if I was going to, if I was going to stab him. I told him, ‘Yes, the Mara rules you.’”

“Mara” refers to Mara Salvatrucha, the long-form name for MS-13.

After the 2015 murder, prosecutors said, Martinez was “jumped in” and made a “homeboy,” or full member of MS-13’s Eastside Loco Salvatrucha (ESLS) clique in East Boston during a ceremony that was surreptitiously recorded by agents.

When a prospective member is “jumped in,” members of the MS-13 clique beat the new member with their hands and feet while one of the leaders of the clique counts aloud slowly to 13, according to prosecutors.

The kicking and countdown can be heard in video of the beating obtained by WBUR and posted to YouTube.

Last week, Martinez’s lawyer requested his client receive 30 years in prison because he was forced to join the gang under duress, according to the Boston Globe.

“In order to survive within MS-13 it is vital to brag and puff oneself up,” Peter L. Ettenberg wrote.

“Many of the other defendants did the same. The defendant’s ‘braggadocio’ is just that. … It is counsel’s belief that Joel Martinez was the sacrifice to the threats of MS-13 towards his family that compelled him to join. If he did not join, family members would be killed.”

US President Donald Trump visited New York’s Long Island on Wednesday, another hotspot for MS-13 activity, and has spoken out about some of the grisliest murders committed by the gang in recent memory.