A Fresno man was sentenced Monday to seven and a half years in prison for conspiring with a local pharmacist to illegally distribute hundreds of thousands of opioid pills, federal prosecutors said.

Kelo White, 44, was sentenced for his role in a scheme that involved the distribution of more than 450,000 oxycodone and hydrocodone pills based on fraudulent prescriptions, Acting U.S. Attorney Kimberly A. Sanchez announced.

From 2014 to 2018, White and his co-defendant, Donald Ray Pierre, 56, also of Fresno, worked with pharmacist Ifeanyi Vincent Ntukogu, 49, to fill forged prescriptions purportedly signed by more than 10 different doctors, according to court records. White was directly responsible for more than 250,000 of the pills.

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To avoid drawing suspicion from regulators, Ntukogu reviewed each prescription and rejected those he believed could raise red flags — such as scripts from certain doctors or individuals already filling prescriptions at other pharmacies. Ntukogu was paid in cash, and White and Pierre then sold the opioids for profit, prosecutors said.

Ntukogu was sentenced in November 2024 to seven years and three months in prison. Pierre received a nine-year, four-month sentence in July 2020.

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