Carlito Brigante his way up to being the heroin kingpin of the neighborhood. Around 1970, Brigante (at the age of 40) is arrested during a drug bust and is sentenced to 30 years in prison. This marks the end of the novel, "Carlito's Way". "After Hours", which is the source for the film version of "Carlito's Way", begins with Brigante beating his prison sentence thanks to his lawyer David Kleinfeld. During "After Hours", Carlito tries to leave his life of crime behind and retire in the Bahamas with his girlfriend Gail. Circumstances conspire against him when Carlito innocuously accompanies his young cousin
Carlito's Way: Rise to Power the entire Bottolotta Family. Carlito, Rocco and Earl fly to the islands with Earl for his wedding. Earl retires, and Carlito reunites with Leticia, retiring temporarily. The character of Hollywood Nicky played by Sean Combs is based on real New York City drug lord Nicky Barnes. In the film, the character Earl played by Mario Van Peebles makes a reference to Governor Rockefeller setting some new drug laws into effect. This is in reference to the Rockefeller drug laws which are tough mandatory sentencing laws for drug dealers. Three actors appear in both Carlito's Way films: Luis Guzmán plays Pachanga