19 de May 2025
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One day in 2018, Efrén received confirmation that the tablet he had purchased online had arrived in Nicaragua, so he set out to complete the procedures to pick up the package. First, he went to the Nicaraguan Institute of Telecommunications and Postal Services (Telcor) to get a permit, which cost him about ten dollars. Then he went to Customs, where he paid a tax equivalent to 60% of the tablet’s value. The entire process took him the whole day just to receive the package.
“Now I know that if I had done the same transaction with a package delivery company, it would have been cheaper. Back then they would have charged me 20 dollars to bring it because they worked with a fixed price, regardless of the value. Now they charge by the pound, but a tablet weighs just a few ounces, and even if it weighed a pound, I would only pay about two dollars for it,” Efrén tells CONFIDENCIAL, requesting anonymity.
Since 2020, dozens of companies dedicated to door-to-door package delivery to Nicaragua have emerged, handling purchases made online by citizens.
Among the main parcel delivery companies in Nicaragua, the following are identified:
- Nica Express
- O’Globo Cargo
- Teen Shop Box
- Cargotrans
- Master Express Shipping
- Rapibox Nicaragua
- Box Nicaragua
- Rapidus 23
- Express Lake
- JB Cargo Nicaragua
- Pinolero Box
- All of Nicaragua Logistic
- Fritanga Nicoya
- 1Click
- M&M Cargo
- Areomar Express
- MK Box Miami
- Express Global Import
- Pronto Shipments
- Smart Cargo
- Global Cargo
- Shuvar Express.
All these companies offer services to ship cargo to Nicaragua from the United States and China. There are also agencies like Yolohago Express that ship packages from Spain, and Compras Express Nic and Leysert Cargo Logistic, which operate out of Panama.
Conversely, agencies like Geyser Express and Aéreo Express offer services to ship packages from Nicaragua to the United States. The business is highly lucrative, generating profits of up to $60,000 per container moved by each company.
The Ortega–Murillo Family’s Sponsorship
Package delivery is a legitimate business that has grown worldwide. However, in Nicaragua, it has a special characteristic: who enters, who exits, and who grows is not determined by market forces but by the favor of two officials and private businessmen, sons of the family in power.
“If the package delivery business works in Nicaragua, it’s because it’s linked to the regime. No one can operate such a business without connections to the regime. These are businesses run by them as officials,” but it is also “a corrupt strategy by the dictatorship to give benefits to their people,” says a northern journalist who has witnessed how those close to the regime enrich themselves by operating these types of businesses.
A decade before the surge of package delivery companies in Nicaragua, there were only two competing to control most of a very lucrative market that mainly served distributors supplying thousands of small businesses in the Mercado Oriental. These were Importaciones Payita, led by Félix Hernández, and Comercializadora Roambeth S.A., owned by Roberto Rivas Méndez.
Over time, these two companies had to share the pie with many other newcomers. To be part of this scheme – according to Efren, who ended up working in this business – it is necessary for someone who is already on the inside to get a meeting with one of the operators who work directly for “LOM” (Laureano Ortega Murillo) or for Maurice Ortega Murillo. These operators manage lines (that is, a chain of companies) that have been assigned to them by one of the brothers, with the mission of administering them and making them grow.
The Expansion of the Package Delivery Business
The grandchildren of the presidential couple are also part of the business. One of the most well-known is Rafael Ortega (son of “Payo” Ortega), who is married to Margarita Sánchez, also a businesswoman. They run their own agency as just another player within the scheme. “They have more privileges than others, but they don’t manage ‘lines,’ as they call them,” Efrén explained.
The growth in the number of companies dedicated to the package delivery business followed a market-driven logic combined with absolute control of power.
“When they saw there was room for this service of receiving international parcels and imports, groups led by the children, daughters-in-law, or grandchildren of the ruling couple began to emerge to compete directly with Importaciones Payita, offering better conditions,” he added.
The strategy used involved the employment of “managers,” who approached businesspeople entering the sector to convince them to work with them, telling them which member of the family was their connection.
This sponsorship guarantees security for handling the cargo and for the companies, protecting them from the extortionate regulations of the General Directorate of Customs (DGA) and the Police.
Nicaraguan business owners have reported living under constant scrutiny from an intense extortion campaign led by the General Revenue Directorate (DGI) and the General Directorate of Customs Services (DGA), with support from local governments, especially the Managua Mayor’s Office.
In July 2023, a CONFIDENCIAL investigation revealed how a “network of tax managers” operates within the DGI and the Directorate of Customs Services to exploit businesses through improper charges.
Meanwhile, the Police—used as the repressive arm of the dictatorship—have been authorized to decide on seizures, property evictions, and debt enforcement, under reforms to existing laws, which were also confirmed in an unofficial circular.
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But those who work under the line that is controlled by Laureano Ortega Murillo may feel more shielded. A professional working for a food production company told CONFIDENCIAL -under condition of anonymity- that although the company he works for does not use these services, he knows other professionals who do use them “for convenience, and because it is cheaper.”
Efrén recounts that he met with one of those operators and told him he wanted to open an agency and asked for the rates. “After explaining to me how the business works, and assuring me that I could work peacefully because everything was under the control of the two brothers, the operator gave me permission and assigned the rates I would charge as an agency: $2.50 per pound of merchandise arriving by sea, and $6 for those coming by air,” he recalls.
What followed was a typical marketing routine: placing ads on social media to start offering package delivery services in Nicaragua. “Usually, your first customers are people you know who tell other acquaintances, and that’s how the business grows. As a result, the market is well divided among many small companies,” he describes.
The advantage of paying only a fraction of the cost
The global lockdown imposed in on a global scale to curb the spread of covid-19 in 2020 led to an enormous increase in the shipment of packages around the world.
During and after the pandemic, the parcel delivery regime grew so much that the World Customs Organization (WCO) called it ‘the tsunami of small packages.’ They were referring to the millions of parcels that began to cross the air and the seas, bringing to consumers the online purchases that everyone had made on international marketplaces.
A professional with experience in Customs explained to CONFIDENCIAL that the proliferation of companies dedicated to parcel delivery in Nicaragua is not only a local phenomenon, but a regional one. “Throughout Central America they work with the same system: they charge six or seven dollars for a delivery to your house, which is the same system that couriers have always used, except that now it is called a parcel service“, he explained.
Up to that point, everything is fine. These companies provide a service transporting merchandise and charge those prices for the work they do to bring packages with purchases from the United States, Panama, or China, including insurance, customs clearance, and other expenses.
The part that parcel companies in Nicaragua skip is the payment of taxes at Customs.
An official from one of those companies that collects cargo from Miami (Florida) assures that “we send your package directly,” so the recipient doesn’t have to worry about handling customs procedures. “Everything goes through Customs, but we deliver it to your home. That’s why it’s called ‘door-to-door’ because it goes straight there,” she highlights.
How much does the package delivery business to Nicaragua cost?
Given the opacity with which public matters are handled in Nicaragua, statistics do not allow an independent calculation of the magnitude of the fraud that this tax evasion represents for the State’s coffers. But it can be estimated.
Two dollars per pound of packages sent to Nicaragua by sea freight and six dollars by air freight are fabulous prices and, precisely because of that, a rate impossible to find if going through the rigorous Customs system, explains Efrén.
He mentions, as an example, that importing a branded shirt weighing less than a pound will cost between two and six dollars if brought by a package delivery company, “but if it goes through Customs, it pays 30% taxes.” According to that example, if the shirt costs $60, $18 would have to be paid to the treasury, “which makes an enormous difference in terms of tax revenue. If you scale that to thousands of daily operations, we are talking about millions in evasion,” he asserts.
This is possible because parcel companies pay a flat rate per container, regardless of its contents. It is common for businesspeople to pay the operator around $10,000 per container, which, of course, must pass Customs inspection. There, Customs personnel will ensure it contains nothing illicit, including drones as a primary concern. Then they will indicate that taxes of 100,000 or 200,000 córdobas must be paid, and it is not unlikely that they will impose a fine of 50,000 córdobas for suspected undervaluation to cover appearances.
In that extreme case, the package delivery company would pay 250,000 córdobas for the container (a little over $6,800 at the current exchange rate), which, added to the $10,000 paid to the operator, would raise the cost to $16,800. “Those containers can carry up to 40,000 pounds, at a nominal price of two dollars per pound, which amounts to $80,000. It’s a super lucrative business,” which can generate much higher profits because some companies charge $2.50 or even $3.00 per pound, he explains.
Customs complicity favors parcel companies
In addition to tax evasion, companies that bring merchandise from abroad to conduct legitimate business in the country also suffer. Added to the chain of those affected are customs agencies that cannot properly serve these importers. The last victims of the system are the brokers who have to multiply their efforts so the agencies they work for can meet their commitments.
Felix is one of them.
In an anonymous conversation with CONFIDENCIAL, he recounts how he, his colleagues, and competitors are forced to arrive early to try to get one of the 10 or 20 numbers that Central Air Customs distributes daily to serve an equal number of customs brokers.
As formal employees of a customs agency, they carry out the procedures so that Customs personnel determine the amount of taxes to be paid. Once the indicated amount is paid and the paperwork is completed, the merchandise will be available to the importer to focus on their own business.
But if the reasonable deadline to clear merchandise is one to four days, the flood of employees from package delivery companies slows down the work of the brokers and increases the costs importers have to pay to retrieve the products they ordered from abroad.
Anyone who wants to operate as an importer must have a license, says Félix, and this is confirmed by Danilo, a businessman in the sector. However, none of the courier companies backed by the regime have that license, which does not stop them from acting as both importers and customs agents who serve themselves.
Wearing both hats gives them the possibility of cataloguing the merchandise with tariff codes that allow them to pay less, “and the customs personnel let them pass, just like that, because that is the instruction they have,” says Danilo.
As someone with firsthand knowledge, Félix describes what happens when a container belonging to one of these courier companies arrives at Customs. The first thing that happens is that a process known as “special cargo” is activated.
“When one of these ‘special cargos’ is received, the customs employees shut down the air customs area to handle only that ‘special cargo.’ That kind of preference should not exist, because it delays the work of customs agencies that operate according to the rules, since their customs brokers are sent away, even though they’ve had to be at the air customs office since 4:00 or 4:30 in the morning, sign up on a list, and hope they’re lucky enough to be attended to that day,” he explains.
The result of these delays is that the importer runs the risk of having the merchandise declared ‘abandoned’ if it’s not cleared through customs within 20 days. Meanwhile, they must pay storage fees for the time their goods remain in the Customs warehouse—even though it’s Customs’ own fault for the delay. These are obstacles that the courier companies under the Ortega–Murillo family’s patronage do not face.
