Koraput: The police arrested three wanted criminals at Jeypore under a special drive and recovered several mobile phones worth more than Rs 4 lakh from their possession on Sunday.

The police said the arrested criminals were in the wanted list for their involvement in more than 30 cases, involving robbery and loot, in the district and outside the district.

"It's a well-knitted gang involved in robbery and loot for the past few years. Recently, the gang conducted robberies at three places in the town and had looted mobile phones worth more than Rs 7 lakh from a shop. Though we managed to arrest four of the gang members, the kingpin is yet to be arrested," said Jeypore sub-divisional police officer T. J. R. Reddy.

"Their involvement in crimes in other district is under verification. All the arrested accused are residents of Jeypore town and we are trying to track down the kingpin at the earliest," he said.

The arrested criminals are identified as Sanjeet Mohanandia, Neelanchal Sahu and Kishore Ganda, police said.