NEW YORK — A math teacher who paid students to dismantle fireworks and store the explosive powder has been sentenced to nearly six years in prison.

Christian Toro was sentenced Wednesday by U.S. District Judge Richard Berman in Manhattan to five years and 10 months in prison.

Prosecutors say Toro and a brother who is awaiting sentencing stored a cache of dangerous materials in a Bronx apartment.

They say the explosive materials were found after a student Toro was having sex with called in a bomb threat to her school.

Toro pleaded guilty in November.

His lawyer requested leniency, saying Toro has expressed “sincere shame and remorse” and is now “clean and sober and rehabilitated.”

The 28-year-old Toro has already been incarcerated 15 months.