From Excelsior (via google translate)

Chuck Rosenberg told reporters that DEA agents are sharing intelligence with their Mexican counterparts, but there are "institutional problems" in the country making it difficult to gather information.

"We have sources in Mexico with whom we work closely. Not extending to the entire Government", he told journalists.

Seems like a shorthand way of saying the corruption in Mexico that was responsible for allowing El Chapo to escape is now protecting him from capture.

Getting the reward, of course, is not so easy. One informant who felt entitled to the reward offered when El Chapo was captured in 2014 says he was refused.

An informant named Jose Miguel Aguirre-Pinzon who tried to claim the reward for capturing a Colombian trafficker named Orlando Sabogal Zuluaga and was refused. He filed suit. The Government filed a motion to dismiss. In its memorandum supporting the motion, available on PACER, it wrote:

The rewards program is entirely discretionary. Neither the statute establishing the program nor the Department of State’s Foreign Affairs Manual confer any substantive or procedural rights with respect to the rewards program on individuals who furnish information to law enforcement agencies.... And individuals have no right under 22 U.S.C. § 2708 or any other provision of law to challenge the reward determination process or any particular decision made during that process.

...the statute and Foreign Affairs Manual create a discretionary and entirely internal process for proposing rewards and determining if and when any such rewards will be paid.

So, who decides? The Government writes

Once submitted, a reward proposal is evaluated by the Narcotics Rewards Program Committee, which is made up of representatives from the Department of Justice, the Department of Homeland Security, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (“ICE”), the Drug Enforcement Administration, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, as well as representatives of other agencies as appropriate. Id. §§ 951.3, 953.5(a).

...If the Committee declines to recommend a reward, the originating entity is advised of the> decision. Id. § 953.5(f).

If the Committee decides to recommend a reward, the recommendation is forwarded to the Secretary of State for a final decision. 2 FAM § 953.7-8. The Secretary must obtain the concurrence of the Attorney General before authorizing any reward that involves a matter over which there is federal criminal jurisdiction. 22 U.S.C. § 2708©(2).

But the bottom line is:

...“[w]hether or not a reward is to be paid in any given case, and the amount of the reward, are matters wholly within the discretion of the Secretary of State, with the concurrence of the Attorney General, as appropriate.”

There are several court opinions siding with the government and dismissing claims to the reward for lack of jurisdiction. Here's one.

The U.S. insists it does pay the rewards. The State Department says it has paid out $88 million in rewards under the Narcotics Reward Program. In 2013, it paid $5 million to four Peruvians for the capture of Shining Path leader Aretemio. The four then began lives with assumed names.

The State Department describes the procedures this way:

Proposals to pay rewards are submitted to the Department of State by the chief of mission at a U.S. embassy at the behest of a U.S. law enforcement agency. Reward proposals are carefully reviewed by an interagency committee, which makes a recommendation for a reward payment to the Secretary of State. Only the Secretary of State has the authority to determine if a reward should be paid, and, in cases where there is Federal criminal jurisdiction, the Secretary must obtain the concurrence of the Attorney General.

The State Department says "if appropriate, [it] will relocate these individuals and their families." Jorge Saucedo, the former Cali cartel member responsible for capturing the Rodriguez-Orejuela brothers, received $1.7 million (not all was from the reward program.) But he has not has it easy, having to raise his family in the U.S. under an assumed name and continue to look over his shoulder. Saucedo's story is the subject of the narco-drama En La Boca del Lobo.(Available on Netflix with English subtitles. There's also a book by the same name that tells his story.)

Here's the current list of targets for whom rewards are offered.

The money is helpful if you can live to enjoy it. Some might think it through enough to conclude that having to move to another country and change your identity isn't worth it.

The availability of drugs is as much the product of corrupt police, military and politicians in Mexico and Central America as it is El Chapo and other traffickers. How about a reward for providing information leading to their arrest and conviction?