Maries County — Two persons remained in custody in the Maries County Jail on Tuesday with charges pending after being arrested on June 6 during a three-way endeavor with local law enforcement agencies.

Lake Area Narcotics Enforcement Group (LANEG) received assistance from Maries County Sheriff’s Department and the Belle Police Department to execute two narcotics search warrants on June 6 within the Belle city limits.

Sheriff’s deputies assisted with the first residence and secured the scene while Belle police assisted with the second residence. During the execution of the warrants, Ryan Goodman and Amanda (Amy) Comparato were arrested and charged with possession of a controlled substance and possession of drug paraphernalia. They were held without bond until their Tuesday morning arraignment.

“Both are still in custody at the Maries County Jail,” said Chief Major Scott John on Monday. “They (were) set to go before Judge Kerry G. Rowden on (Tuesday).”

John complimented the other two law enforcement agencies on working together.

“This was a result of all three agencies working together to achieve positive results towards ridding our communities of illegal substances,” John said.” Intel gathered from traffic stops, narcotics investigators, or covert observations of known offenders all go into the development of these search warrants obtained by our LANEG task force agents.”

John added that the community plays a big part in getting law enforcement agencies involved.

“Reporting what you see to law enforcement is always forwarded to our task force agents and investigated,” he said. “Unfortunately, a small portion of tips result in search warrants as developing the probable cause evidence required by the courts to secure a search warrant is a pretty high bar. However, we know the efforts our task force puts forward and the continuous work they spend with the patrol officers of all law enforcement agencies in Maries County. All of our agencies are dedicated to continue taking this fight directly to the front door of these offenders.”

This was also the first joint operation the city of Belle’s police department has participated in since its re-establishment, according to Sgt. Mark Morgan with the Belle PD.

“This was the first narcotics-related search warrant the Belle Police Department has executed since rebuilding the department late last year,” Morgan said. “Lots of time and effort goes into planning and executing these warrants due the dangerous circumstance we may encounter when we come through the door. We never know for sure how many people or what kind of weapons may be present so we always use extreme caution when serving these kinds of warrants.”

Morgan added that he has worked with the LANEG task force during his time at the Maries County Sheriff’s Office.

“I have conducted search warrant/mission planning and supervised the execution of numerous search warrants previously while working for other agencies and the military,” he said. “Overall I was very pleased with the performance and teamwork demonstrated by LANEG and Belle PD.”