Bellevue police say they've broken up a crime ring that may have been responsible for a rash of burglaries in the Somerset and Newport Shores neighborhoods.

The three suspects may also be connected to burglaries and the trafficking of stolen goods in Kent, Federal Way and Auburn.

A confidential tip led the department's Special Enforcement Team to follow a suspected robber, who broke into a house May 17. The 19-year-old Auburn man was arrested as he was walking out of the house, and he later confessed to several other burglaries.

A week later, police arrested a 24-year-old Federal Way man for trafficking stolen property, and a few days later, they arrested a 19-year-old Federal Way man who confessed to six burglaries, four of which were in Bellevue.

The Auburn man, Aleksandr Borodulin, has been charged with four counts of residential burglary and two counts of trafficking stolen property. Sergey Vishnevskiy, the 24-year-old, has been charged with two counts of residential burglary and one count of trafficking stolen property. The third man, 19-year-old Vitaliy Babets, has been charged with five counts of residential burglary.

Bellevue police say there was a spike in burglaries in April, with 39, compared to 21 in March.

"Our records indicate a monumental drop in burglaries since the arrest of this one burglar (Borodulin)," said Bellevue Lt. Dan Mathieu in a prepared statement.

Some stolen property has been recovered, and is being returned to the victims. Bellevue police are continuing to try to link the men to other crimes.