Joseph Bargos was sentenced to 5 years in prison after he was caught trying to smuggle nearly 2,000 fentanyl-laced oxycodone pills into Chicago. Bargos, 74, had received clemency from President Barack Obama. (Winnebago County Sheriff’s Office via Chicago Sun-Times)

A man who was granted clemency by President Barack Obama in 2015 couldn’t take advantage of a second chance at life and was arrested again four years later trying to smuggle nearly 2,000 fentanyl-laced oxycodone pills into Chicago, federal prosecutors say.

Joseph Bargos, 74, was sentenced to more than five years in prison on Tuesday.

Bargos’ drug distribution convictions date back to 1967, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Illinois said in his sentencing memorandum. In 1993 a federal judge sentenced Bargos to a 30-year prison sentence for distribution of cocaine and unlawful use of a communication facility.

But Bargos’ was one of about 1,600 people to receive a commutation from Obama in 2015. The commutations were part of a program under Obama to shorten prison sentences for inmates who would likely have received a lesser sentence in 2014. Among the qualifications to receive the commutation the inmates had to have no ties to large scale criminal organizations, served at least 10 years of their sentence and have no history of violence. The inmates were released, but put on probation.