Two men who were charged last year with transporting hundreds of prescription pills from New York City to East Lyme are paying the legal consequences after police said they repeated the same crime this spring.

Tyler D. Glendenning, 22, of 282 Chesterfield Road is accused of arranging for James R. Douglas, 22, of 22 Crossley Court to drive to Brooklyn on April 3 to purchase about $4,000 worth of oxycodone pills. Glendenning had been released from prison for the first offense just two days earlier.

After receiving a tip from a “concerned citizen” that Douglas would be returning to town with the drugs, East Lyme police stopped Douglas’ green Subaru Legacy in the area of Chesterfield Road and Walnut Hill Road and found a Victoria’s Secret bag containing two prescription drug containers. The containers were packed with 328 oxycodone 30 mg, oxycodone hydrochloride 30 mg and oxymorphone 40 mg pills, according to an arrest warrant affidavit. Douglas told police he had been offered cash to pick up and deliver the drugs to Glendenning.

In April 2013, police had received information that Glendenning, Douglas and Sean Connolly of Groton were making a run to New York City to pick up drugs. They pulled the men over on Chesterfield Road and found 713 oxycodone 30 mg pills, more than $2,000 in cash and a black Uzi handheld stun gun.

Glendenning, sentenced to a year in prison for possession of narcotics with intent to sell for the April 2013 offense, posted bond following his second arrest and was being electronically monitored while his new charges were pending in New London Superior Court.

During his court appearance Thursday, Judge Hillary B. Strackbein increased his bond to $50,000 and sent him back to jail after the Office of Adult Probation reported Glendenning missed his curfew last month after going to a concert and had tested positive for drugs. His next court date is Sept. 10.

Douglas had not yet resolved his first criminal case. He was free on bond, attending college and hoping to avoid a felony conviction. When the police found the drugs in his car on April 3, he kept repeating, “My life is over,” “I’m going to jail” and “I can’t finish school,” according to the affidavit.

He pleaded guilty in July to two counts of possession of narcotics and was sentenced Friday to 30 months in prison.

“It’s an ongoing problem, him dealing drugs in the community,” prosecutor David J. Smith said during the sentencing.

Douglas said he knows what he did was wrong and he is “not hiding” from that. Attorney M. Fred DeCaprio and Douglas’ mother stressed that Glendenning was the ringleader, and DeCaprio said Douglas was trying to make money to support his own drug habit. While he won’t be able to get financial aid for college because of his felony conviction, DeCaprio said Douglas plans to attend trade school when he is released.

“You’re probably saving his life right now because he’s not getting hooked on heroin,” his mother, Debra Douglas, told Strackbein before the judge imposed the sentence.

Pill users often turn to heroin, a cheaper alternative, when their money or pill supply runs out.

Strackbein told Douglas she doesn’t think it’s too late for him.

“Is that what you want to do, sell poison to other people so they can be hooked on heroin?” she asked.

k.florin@theday.com

Twitter: @KFLORIN