The sentences against Di Zeo and five other La Doce members -- all but one has turned himself in -- are seen as a test for a justice system trying to crack down on a wave of stadium violence.

Argentine judges hand down preliminary convictions and the convicted criminal is often freed until a higher court confirms the sentence.

After a superior court upheld the La Doce sentences early in March the six men went into hiding while their lawyers tried unsuccessfully to appeal.

WANTED FOR OTHER CRIMES

Di Zeo, 45, took over La Doce's leadership from Jose Barrita, who was found guilty of the 1994 murder of two fans of River Plate, Boca's bitter rivals.

White-haired Di Zeo is a well-known figure in Argentina. News of his conviction and subsequent disappearance have hung over the soccer season and landed him on newspaper front pages.

Only weeks ago, he posed on a magazine cover alongside a fancy sports utility vehicle and a bikini-clad woman.

During matches, television cameras often focus on his group in the stands, and when he and the other convicted members of the group went underground, cameras focused on the empty spot kept there for them.

Di Zeo, a Buenos Aires municipal employee, had boasted in the past that justice could not catch up with him because he had the phone numbers of the most powerful people in the country.

He also boasted of teaching hooligans in other Latin American countries how to organize.

Many organized hooligan groups in Argentina make money from extortion, threatening clubs with violence or mayhem unless they get kickbacks.