The organization used a variety of routes to send the cocaine from the Dominican Republic and/or Haiti towards Puerto Rico to the U.S. mainland, including New York City.
[1] Paulino was arrested by DEA special agent Erik Pepen following the confiscation of 1,387 kilos of cocaine linked to him on December 19, 2004.
Paulino's extradition is the first under a newly adopted criminal code in the Dominican Republic, and was the result of a joint investigation involving cooperation between the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and the Dominican Government's National Direction for Drug Control (Dirección Nacional de Control de Drogas, or DNCD).
The depth of Paulino's links to the highest levels of Dominican political parties and military have been of primary concern to law enforcement.
One year later, on September 10, 2003, after Jorge Radhamés Zorrilla Ozuna replaced Polanco, Paulino was reinstated into the Army, being promoted to First Lieutenant of the National Army by memorandum 32070 signed by former Secretary of the Dominican Armed Forces, Major General General Soto Jiménez following instructions from former president Hipólito Mejía.
[2] The Dominican newspaper El Listín Diario published a report in which claimed that in addition to the RD$2 million Paulino donated to the Dominican Revolutionary Party (Partido Revolucionario Dominicano) for the construction of the gate of the elementary and high schools in Comendador, capital of Elías Piña Province, he also donated a vehicle to the Municipal Committee of the Dominican Liberation Party Partido de la Liberacion Dominicana and is also known to have made donations to the Christian Social Reformist Party Partido Reformista Social Cristiano politicians in the area.
In April 2004, Major General Furcy Castellanos, chief of Army Intelligence (J2) revealed that the armed forces alerted former president Mejía that the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration was on Paulino's trail.