On Sunday, November 20th, an operative was conducted in Nicoya canton by officials of immigration, the municipality, MINAE, Incopesca, transit and the public force, including 15 officials and two vehicles, according to Nicoya Public Force chief Adriana Cordoba. "We're going to be doing more operatives," she promised.

In the course of the evening, from 4 p.m. to 1 a.m. the officials issued three traffic tickets, found 12 people without proper identification documents, decommissioned a small amount of drugs in two bars in Samara, partially closed three businesses for alcohol sales without a liquor license (i.e. locking the beer freezer) and totally closed down two Samara bars that did not have business permits on hand. Las Olas bar was able to present their permits soon afterward and opened again the next day, Cordoba explained, but El Mango in Matapalo of Samara had more problems.

Neighbors in Matapalo informed VON that El Mango is owned by Domingo Bonillo Arias, who is currently in prison in Puntarenas, as confirmed by a representative of the Puntarenas jail. The bar's manager could not be located for comment.

The three businesses that were partially closed due to issues with liquor licenses were Pizzeria El Bambucito in Nosara, Bar La Roca in Cuesta Grande of Belen and Super Herrera in Caimital of Nicoya, according to a report from David Villarreal Orias, coordinator of inspectors for the municipality of Nicoya who participated in the operative.

Jorge Arturo Lopez Ruiz, owner of Pizzeria El Bambucito, told VON that he doesn't sell alcohol in the pizzeria because it doesn't have a liquor license, but he does sell alcohol in his other restaurant, called El Bambu, which is next to the pizzeria and does have a liquor license. "I don't sell [it] there [in El Bambucito] but people buy [alcohol] in my other business and as a courtesy we bring it to them," he explained.

In addition to the operatives, the public force is also getting a boost from students of the police academy, who will be patrolling the streets in downtown Nicoya and Samara for two weeks, Cordoba informed VON. Ten cadets are in Samara and 18 are assigned to Nicoya. She hopes the arrangement with the academy will continue in the future.

More Regional News Efforts of Samara Community to Improve their Security have Paid Off In the meeting last night, Dec. 14th at 6pm in Intercultura, the Costa Rican Police Commissioner Juan José Andrade presented his official plan 2012 for a "Sámara Seguro" (Safe Samara) with a power point presentation given to an audience of approximately 25 police officers and 65 community members. Interview with Tobias Holler, Architect and Professor of NYIT New York Students Competed in a Design Contest for the New Nosara Recycling Center A group of 50 students at the New York Institute of Technology (NYIT) participated in a competition to design a building in the middle of a dry tropical forest: a recycling and educational center for Nosara. Their challenge was to create a sustainable building that would stand up to extreme climate conditions.  Attorney Who Conducted Study for City Hall is under Investigation for Plagiarism • Report focused on illegally occupied properties on the MLZ • City Hall paid $8000 for study Nicoya's City Hall is investigating an attorney, whose last name is Bravo and who was hired by them last year, in order to determine if he plagiarized a report issued by the National Comptroller's Office (Contraloría General de la República) in regards to the Maritime Land Zone (MLZ), which he presented as his own work. Samara ASADA Will Continue Without Fiscal  On Saturday, November 26th, Samara's ASADA hosted its annual assembly in the community hall to elect members of the board of directors, but no one wanted to take on the role of fiscal, a post which has been vacant since early 2011 when Ronny Briceño resigned. Donated Police Patrol Cars Require Funds to Be Repaired and Start Patrolling the Streets On August 27th, Mario Zamora, Minister of Public Safety, signed a cooperation agreement with the Nosara Development Association (Asociación de Desarrollo Integral de Nosara - ADIN), establishing that the police would receive two vehicles to patrol the area. Guiones Tourist Police / Nosara Security Association Only eleven (11!) people came to the recent annual meeting of the Nosara Security Association. A representative of the Guanacaste Tourist Police was on hand to discuss the possibility of the Ministry of Security taking over the payment of rent and utilities for the Tourist Police office on Guiones.