A Long Beach man could spend the rest of his life behind bars for a series of at-gunpoint rapes that spanned  four years and prompted a countywide search for an armed “sexual predator” in late 2017,  officials announced Monday.

A judge sentenced 36-year-old Ferdinand Ervin Flowers to 30 years to life in state prison after he was convicted of sexually assaulting 13 women, the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office said. The attacks, in which he preyed on prostitutes, threatened them with a gun and raped them in a secluded location, happened across the South L.A. and Compton areas, according to police.

The attacks occurred from Jan. 30, 2014 to Jan. 12, 2018, when officers said they arrested Flowers after he was seen pushing a woman out of a vehicle in an industrial area near Carson.

The man had picked up that victim, a 19-year-old sex worker, in Lynwood before pointing a gun at her and demanding money, the DA’s Office said. The officers recovered a .40-caliber handgun in the vehicle.

Flowers, who worked as a security guard, previously dropped off his victims at that location, authorities said at the time.

The month before his arrest, Los Angeles police and county Sheriff’s Department sought the public’s help identifying a “sexual predator.” At the time, officials said at least one victim was 15 years old.

In January 2018, Flowers pleaded not guilty to kidnapping to commit rape and/or robbery, assault with intent to commit rape and second-degree robbery.

The following September, he pleaded no contest to two felony counts each of forcible oral copulation and assault with intent to commit forcible oral copulation. He admitted to using a handgun and agreed to pay restitution for all the victims, prosecutors said.