GIRL CAGED BY DOPE GROWERS

IN a case disturbingly similar to that of the Ariel Castro kidnapping ordeal, a teenage girl who went missing in Los Angeles in April was discovered a month later in Northern California, having been kidnapped and used as a sex slave on a marijuana farm.

The LA Police Department believes the 15-year-old, who it described as a runaway, was kidnapped by Ryan Balletto, 30, and his associate Patrick Pearmain, 25, and taken to their growing operation in Lake County.

According to a criminal complaint, when the girl wasn’t being used to help harvest marijuana she was locked for days at a time in a 4ft by 2ft metal toolbox.

The toolbox had holes punched in it so she could breathe, and a blanket.

Another hole was drilled into the box so they could a run a hose through it to clean her without letting her out. Apparently Balletto called her a ‘trooper’ for not screaming in the box.

She was also told ‘not to f*** up’ because the men had a ‘whole lot of money on the [marijuana] grow’.

In addition to the toolbox, police found a homemade wooden rack used for sexual bondage and a noose next to the box.

LAPD contacted the Lake County Police Department, saying Balletto may have been responsible for the girl’s kidnapping. Officers showed up at Balletto’s house on April 29, asking about the girl. This tipped the girl off, who called police the next day saying she was okay.

Authorities were able to trace that call to the girl’s location at a west Sacramento motel, where the two men were arrested and the girl was transferred to protective custody.

Federal investigators believe there may be more victims.

Police later raided Balletto’s grow operation and home where they found 1,400 pot plants, $4,000 in cash, and a large, bulk of loaded weapons. Five children were also found at the home and placed into care.