An Oakland man faces a 6-month jail sentence for his role in an interstate trucking scheme that saw hucksters bleed more than $300,000 from California’s recycling fund.

Mario Morales Nolasco and his gang of accomplices loaded a total of 1,800 pounds of empty aluminum cans into trucks in Washington — which has no CRV program for beverage containers — and redeemed them in California, said spokesman Mark Oldfield of CalRecycle, the state’s waste management agency.

Nolasco was state-certified to haul away bottles and cans from California bars and restaurants and cash them in. Using that certification as cover, he teamed up with Maria Garcia Nicasio, Saul Chavez and Francisco Reyex-Barrios to run the empty cans in trucks from Shelton, Wash., Oldfield said.

The recycling agency was tipped off to the scheme, and after checking the books, it set up a sting with the California Department of Justice.

State agents busted the ring on Jan. 26 when the three Washington suspects allegedly pulled up in two trucks at a California processing facility and met Nolasco. After selling him around 9,000 pounds of aluminum cans for a reported $13,320, the suspects headed to Oakland where they were promptly arrested and charged with conspiracy, grand theft and recycling fraud, Oldfield said.

Recycling fraud has long haunted California. The Justice Department estimates the state’s $1.2-billion fund gets defrauded about $40 million every year, Oldfield said.

Nolasco pleaded no contest to felony charges on March 6 and was scheduled to be sentenced Wednesday. The deal called for $146,000 in restitution to CalRecycle, 178 days in jail, and five years of probation.

Authorities estimate Nolasco and his accomplices bilked an estimated $329,887 from the fund.

Nicasio was convicted and sentenced to 120 days in jail and five years of probation, authorities said. Chavez and Reyes-Barrios were each sentenced to 76 days in jail and three years of probation.

CalRecycle is taking measures this year to curb fraud as beverage-container recycling in the state has reached an all-time high of 82 percent. The agency is reducing the number of containers an individual can cash in per day at a recycling center. Recycling centers will also be subject to increased scrutiny, and must undergo enhanced training and pass a test in order to operate.