A sentencing hearing was closed to the public Thursday for a woman who participated in a scheme to collect ransom money from family members of kidnap victims from Southern California who were grabbed in Mexico, two of whom were murdered.
Leslie Matla, who lived in Colton, in San Bernardino County, before moving to Tijuana, Mexico, pleaded guilty in September 2021 to five federal charges, including multiple counts of conspiracy related to hostage taking and extortion, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Matla’s then-boyfriend, Juan Carlos Montoya-Sanchez, 31, formerly of Tijuana, pleaded guilty in October 2021 to four federal charges and was sentenced in January 2025 to 10 years behind bars.
Prosecutors say Matla, now 25, crossed the border from Mexico into the U.S. to pick up ransom payments from victims’ family members.
A spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office told City News Service that the scheduled sentencing hearing Thursday and its transcript were sealed. No reason was given.
According to court papers, in 2020, three men — residents of San Diego, Norwalk and Pasadena — were kidnapped in Tijuana while on business or visiting family. The victims’ families were notified via a caller with a Mexican telephone number to deposit ransom money at a specific location, prosecutors said.
Mexican authorities found the San Diego victim’s body on March 29, 2020 — one day after the man’s son placed a bag containing $25,000 inside the women’s restroom of a McDonald’s restaurant in San Ysidro.
The body of the Norwalk victim was found in Mexico on April 14, 2020, a day after the victim’s family tried, but did not succeed, to pay a $25,000 ransom to a woman whom law enforcement believes was Matla, at a Lowe’s parking lot in Norwalk, according to court documents.
Federal prosecutors said on April 22, 2020, a Pasadena woman called law enforcement to report a family member had been kidnapped in Mexico with a ransom demand of $20,000.
One of the kidnappers, calling from a Mexican phone number, informed the victim’s family that a pregnant woman would pick up the cash at a Food 4 Less parking lot in Lynwood. That same day, law enforcement rescued the victim, who was being held hostage at the same Tijuana hotel as the first two kidnapping victims. Nine suspects were arrested by Mexican authorities at the hotel.
A review of U.S.-Mexico border crossing records, security camera videos from the various pickup locations, and social media led law enforcement to identify Matla as the woman sent to San Ysidro, Norwalk and Lynwood to pick up the ransom money on the dates in question, court documents stated.
Records show that Sanchez received wire transfers from two of the kidnapping victims, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Matla and Sanchez were among 11 people arrested in the scheme that targeted at least 20 victims from the United States and Mexico, Mexican authorities said.