On March 27th, 2011, two officers from MINAET Ostional (Ministry of Environment, Energy and Telecommunications) found 20 pochote trees stumps, which were supposedly cut illegally on a property near the Nosara dump. Among the parties involved, which included two brothers of the Nosara Representative, Marcos Avila, none had permission to cut, transport, or sell the trees.

When José Paulo Baltodano Díaz and Laura Brenes Chávez of MINAET Ostional arrived the property, they came across Geiner Ávila Alvarado, who was transporting some of the trunks with heavy machinery. Following this finding, MINAET Nicoya started a new investigation on the issue on March 28th, 2011.

The reminiscent of the pochote trees after the transportation of the trunks. Geiner Ávila Alvarado, who transported the trunks to the sawmills with his brother Geovanny Ávila Alvarado, informed MINAET that, "Randal told me that Mario Juarez cut the trees."

Forest Law 7575
According to forest law of Costa Rica, even if a person who wants to cut the trees, is the property owner, he or she has to get permits from MINAET because the MINAET wants to make sure that trees or the land is not under protection. Also they want to make sure that the trees are not planted near any watershed such as creeks, rivers or water springs. This is critical for the absorption of the water.

Persons who get involved in illegal tree cutting can be sentenced to prison from one month to three years.

In this case, even if pochote trees are not a protected species, according to the law in Costa Rica any kind of tree cutting and its transportation requires a permit from the MINAET.

9 trunks were transported to the sawmill of Brainner Zeledón Jiménez, whose workshop is located 50 meters from Súper La Paloma. Jiménez commented, "Randal (Matarita) told me that he had the permits to work on these trunks but he never brought them (the permits)." Jiménez also reported to MINAET that he received wood from Randal (Mataritta) and sold it to someone from Los Arenales, that he didn't want to name. After the arrival of officers at the sawmill, the trunks were moved to a property that is located between Jiménez' sawmill and Súper La Paloma. These trunks were also marked with DF.

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