KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — A Kansas man has been ordered to spend eight years in federal prison for his role in a scheme involving hundreds of fraudulent prescriptions used to obtain tens of thousands of pills of the powerful painkiller oxycodone.

Thirty-nine-year-old Gabriel Demaria of Kansas City, Kansas, was sentenced Tuesday. He pleaded guilty last September to participating in a conspiracy spanning more than five years to distribute oxycodone.

Authorities say some conspirators obtained legitimate prescription papers while others would steal prescription pads from local doctors. The defendants then used those fraudulently created prescriptions and stolen identifications to get oxycodone from pharmacies.

Demaria is among six co-defendants, all from Missouri, who have pleaded guilty.