SAN DIEGO - A man dubbed the "FedEx Bandit" because he used envelopes from the delivery company to stash money during dozens of bank heists was sentenced today to 34 years in state prison.

Farzad Farhbaksh, also known as Ernest Lozano, pleaded guilty on May 17 to 32 counts of robbery.

"I'm sincerely sorry for what I've done, your honor," the defendant told San Diego Superior Court Judge David Danielsen before he handed down the sentence. "I ask for your mercy."

The judge gave Farhbaksh consecutive sentences because the 32 counts represented separate victims and separate crimes.

Danielsen also made note of the criminally sophisticated and professional way in which the crimes were committed. He said Farhbaksh's actions represented a pattern of criminal activity and not a single period of aberrant behavior, as the defense had argued.

Farhbaksh, 41, was detained at a U.S.-Mexico border pedestrian crossing just over a year ago and confessed to robbing 43 banks over a two-year period, FBI officials said.

It was unknown where the Iranian national lived, but authorities believed he went back and forth across the U.S.-Mexico border.

Police said Farhbaksh first came to the United States on a student visa, but had been in the country illegally since the permit expired.

In addition to 32 bank robberies in San Diego County, Farhbaksh is suspected of robbing a half-dozen banks in Orange and Los Angeles counties, said Deputy District Attorney George Bennett.

Authorities think the defendant got away with close to $300,000 in the holdups.

The series of bank robberies attributed to the "FedEx Bandit" began in September 2003 and frustrated investigators, who had little physical evidence and witness information to go on.

Investigators got the break they needed in June 2005, when Farhbaksh left a cell phone behind after holding up a California Bank & Trust branch on Via de la Valle, according to the FBI.