A 53-year-old Middleburg man will spend 10 years in federal prison for illegally distributing prescription drugs he obtained while on Medicare.

Joseph George Ecker was sentenced Aug. 27 for conspiracy to distribute Schedule II prescription narcotic drugs and health care fraud, charges he plead guilty to June 1, said Peter Carr, U.S. Department of Justice spokesman.

In addition to his prison time, Ecker was ordered to repay Medicare $201,465, the amount he defrauded from it. Ecker will also be required to repay $200,000 in profits from his illegal prescription drug sales. Ecker also consented to the forfeiture of his house as property used to facilitate his drug trafficking activities, Carr said.

According to court documents, from 2007 to 2010, Ecker engaged in a conspiracy to distribute massive amounts of prescription narcotics that he obtained at little or no cost as a Medicare beneficiary. Ecker sold narcotics out of his residence in Middleburg and adjusted the prescriptions he received based in part on what he could resell to other co-conspirators for profit, Carr said.

When he is released from prison, Ecker will serve three years of supervised probation, Carr said.