Marvin Santiago - Drug Arrest and Sentence

Drug Arrest and Sentence

In 1980, at the height of his popularity, Santiago was arrested and imprisoned for cocaine possession. He served in prison a little over five out of the ten years he was sentenced due to good behavior. Ruben Blades visited Santiago while in prison something for which Santiago was eternally grateful to Blades.

Shortly after he entered prison, Santiago became a born-again Christian and stop using drugs. As part of his rehabilitation program, Santiago became the director of a group of prisoners that dedicated their efforts towards drug prevention awareness programs (Confinados En Acción Y Prevención). Santiago went to universities and public schools to give talks about drug prevention.

In July 1981 Millet died from a massive heart attack. Santiago was allowed a prison pass to attend the funeral home where Millet’s body rested and pay respects to his friend.

In late 1981, Santiago released the album "Adentro" ("Inside"). The title of the album referred to the fact that Santiago was in prison. The album was recorded live at the Bayamón regional jail and the vocals were later overdubbed in a makeshift studio at the jail. A minor hit from the album was "Auditorio Azul" (Based on the fact that prison uniforms at that facility were blue in color).

In 1982, Santiago was invited and participated on the Third Penitentiary Theater Festival held in Venezuela.

Santiago recorded three more studio albums while serving his sentence. The albums were not received as well as previous albums due to a combination of factors. Among those factors were; arrangements that were not at the same level as the ones provided by Millet produced albums, Santiago’s spiritual reawakening and the considerably cleaned up lyrics on his later work, something that his hardcore fans did not approve of, and the surge of merengue groups such as the Puerto Rico-based Conjunto Quisqueya and Freddie Kenton Orchestra, as well as new local talent such as Eddie Santiago, Gilberto Santa Rosa, and Frankie Ruiz who popularized the so-called "Romantic Salsa", which eventually displaced more urban-based subject matter in Salsa songs.