What Los Mochis, Sinaloa looked like before drug violence took over

A street sign in November 1988 in the Mexican city of Los Mochis in Sinaloa near the Sea of Cortez. A street sign in November 1988 in the Mexican city of Los Mochis in Sinaloa near the Sea of Cortez. Photo: Joe McNally, Getty Images Photo: Joe McNally, Getty Images Image 1 of / 38 Caption Close What Los Mochis, Sinaloa looked like before drug violence took over 1 / 38 Back to Gallery

After a shootout with Mexican police, the world’s most infamous drug cartel leader Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman has been re-arrested.

After he escaped from a maximum security prison in the summer, authorities captured Guzman in the city of Los Mochis in cartel leader’s home state of Sinaloa in northwest Mexico. His capture won’t end the Sinaloa Cartel, and the drug war will wage on in the region and in Los Mochis – just like the previous two times Guzman was in custody before escaping.

READ MORE: Mexican president: Drug lord “Chapo” Guzman recaptured

Cartel violence has left tens of thousands dead in Mexico and turned Sinaloa into one of the most treacherous areas of the country. Los Mochis has its own fascinating history before the drug gangs took over.

An American socialist founded a utopian colony in the area back in the late 1800s. In 1903, a U.S. citizen named Benjamin Johnson turned the city into a sugar refining hub. The agricultural industry in the area started to thrive around that time, and Johnston became a power in the region. There’s even a botanical garden in the area named after Johnston.

In 1961, the impressive Chihuahua-Pacific Railroad was completed with its western terminus located in Los Mochis. In the gallery above, you can see archive photos that show what life was like in Los Mochis in 1988 as the last stop on the rail line.

RELATED: 17 things to know about “El Chapo”

The impoverished city with a population of a quarter-million was never much of a tourist stop. However the rising drug violence over the last decade has only made the visitors scarcer. Here’s how USA Today described the situation in 2010:

It was a fabulous day for duck hunting, quiet and peaceful except for the occasional bang of a shotgun in a marsh near the Mexican town of Los Mochis. Then Mexico's drug war intruded.

A police helicopter roared in over the mangroves, scattering the ducks and hovering over the American hunters trying not to be seen in their blinds.

Suspected drug traffickers had killed six people, execution-style with bullets to the head, near the marsh the night before. Now police were searching for a possible seventh body that may have been dumped in the water.

It’s that same once-quiet town where Mexican authorities brought down El Chapo for a third time.

See the gallery above for a look at Los Mochis through the years.