Yasmeen Khan

It's a dramatic escalation in the government's crackdown against organized crime, and his death has sparked a wave of retaliatory violence.

Nemesio Aseguera, known as El Mencho, was once a police officer but became a drug dealer and rose to become the head of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, running a vast criminal enterprise.

The operation that killed him was led by the Mexican authorities, but reportedly used American intelligence.

At least nine other cartel members were killed, and various weapons, including rocket launchers, were seized.

Laura Gottesdiener is a senior correspondent with Reuters' Mexico bureau and explained Aceguera's significance.

She told us the cartel he ran was one of the most powerful groups in the country, with a presence across the Americas.

The death of Aseguera has sparked violent clashes in response.

In Jalisco, the western state where the raid was carried out, gangs burned cars and trucks to block roads.

And in the tourist hotspot of Puerto Vallarta, several roads were blocked, and a video posted by the news site Reforma showed thick smoke rising from vehicles near the beach.

The U.S.

embassy has warned Americans in the region to shelter, while multiple airlines have canceled flights to Puerto Vallarta.

Mexico's President Claudia Sheinbaum acknowledged the violence in a social media post, but said, quote, we must stay informed and remain calm.

Godestiner told us that Sheinbaum has broken with her predecessor by targeting these groups.

She's deployed thousands of troops to try and tackle the violence, amid intense pressure from the White House to slow the drug trade into the U.S.

But as Gottesdiener notes, the events of the weekend show that the government has a tricky balancing act as it weighs the potentially violent consequences of its operations.

The fire in Milan finally went out last night as the Winter Olympics came to a close.

In total, Team USA is coming home with 12 gold medals, a record for the team, and they finished second in the medal count overall behind Norway.

There were some incredibly high highs, like Alyssa Liu's historic gold medal for women's figure skating.

and the men's hockey team's dramatic win over Canada in the gold medal match yesterday.

That win came just two days after the U.S.