THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

BOSTON -- A Massachusetts man has been sentenced to 42 months in prison for selling prescription painkillers to Canadian New England Patriots lineman Nick Kaczur.

Federal Judge William Young says he would have given Daniel Ekasala of Saugus a longer sentence Wednesday had Ekasala not tried to convince his celebrity customer to stop using the Oxycontin pills.

The charges against Ekasala were based on three transactions between the men secretly recorded by the Drug Enforcement Administration in May.

Kaczur, from Brantford, Ont., is not named in court records but The Boston Globe reports that Ekasala's defence lawyer, Bernard Grossberg identified the player as the co-operating federal witness.

The drug charges were put on hold if Kaczur stays out of trouble for six months.