Updated ,first published
Police have raided the homes of Mick Gatto and his close associate, Big Build subcontractor Nic Maric, as part of ongoing investigations into suspected crime and corruption in the construction sector.
The dramatic arrest of Gatto at his Mount Martha property on Wednesday morning by detectives from Taskforce Hawk came five days after officers from the same taskforce raided Maric’s Point Cook property.
Last March, this masthead first revealed Maric was one of several building company owners paying gangland-linked construction sector fixers such as Gatto to smooth their access to major projects.
Until recently, Maric’s construction firm, LTE, was working on Labor’s signature $109 billion Big Build infrastructure program.
Taskforce Hawk was set up in response to ongoing revelations by this masthead about the activities in the state’s construction sector of gangland-aligned figures such as Gatto and Maric – who is also close to the Comanchero bikie gang – as well as Gatto’s contacts within the scandal-tainted CFMEU.
Construction industry insiders, who spoke on the condition of anonymity due to fear of repercussions, welcomed Hawk’s actions, saying the allegations about Gatto’s poisonous impact within the construction sector were longstanding but, until now, had led to little Victoria Police action.
The raids suggest police are embracing a far more aggressive detect-or-deter stance when dealing with alleged crime in the building sector.
One tactic of Taskforce Hawk is to use the investigation of relatively minor offending to target construction industry players they suspect of involvement in more serious conduct.
Gatto was at the centre of the original Building Bad revelations in July 2024, with this masthead publishing a secret recording of the gangland figure talking to a Melbourne developer.
“I can stop anyone doing anything, mate,” Gatto says on the recording. “And I say that respectfully. I don’t want to be a smartie. We can cause you grief.”
In a statement, police confirmed Maric was raided in connection to a probe into a firebombing in April 2025.
The firebombing was suspected to be part of a campaign of intimidation linked to a battle to control the lucrative piling and earthworks sector. This masthead revealed video of the firebombing last year.
Maric was contacted for comment.
In a statement about Wednesday’s raid, Victoria Police said its officers had arrested and interviewed Gatto and a 72-year-old woman as part “of a current investigation into alleged financial offences”.
Both were released pending further inquiries.
“Police also seized a number of items including electronic devices, and two controlled weapons including a baton and knife. The investigation, which commenced earlier this year, remains ongoing,” the statement said.
Gatto returned to the Mornington Peninsula mansion about 4pm, stepping out of the back of a silver Kia SUV driven up to the property’s garage.
Dressed casually in a hooded jacket and beanie, Gatto ambled towards his front security gate before letting himself in, initially refusing to answer questions from a waiting media pack.
He emerged later in the afternoon to declare the police action was a “load of crap”.
“When they use 20 or 30 police over a speeding fine, this country is in trouble. It’s a load of crap. All a load of crap. It’ll all come out in due time,” he told reporters.
Asked about the knife seized from his house he described it as a “toothpick”.
Gatto’s lawyer Martin Amad separately told this masthead that the arrests had “nothing whatsoever to do with criminal activity in the construction industry”.
Instead, he said, they centred on “allegations regarding driving infringements”.
“As to why Hawk would turn up with God knows how many police, only police will know what the motive for that was,” he said.
Gatto has been a central figure in the scandal that has engulfed the construction industry.
In his report, tabled in Queensland’s Commission of Inquiry into the CFMEU, Geoffrey Watson, SC, outlined what he called the “Gatto extortion model”, which involved demanding payment from contractors to avoid industrial strife.
Watson accused Gatto of successfully running a “terror campaign” that he estimated would net the gangland figure millions of dollars a year.
Watson’s report also backed revelations by this masthead that Australian Federal Police were investigating – and in March 2025 had raided – accountant Charles Pellegrino over payments from a number of contractors as part of a probe into a suspected criminal conspiracy to give or receive “corrupting benefits” to influence union officials.
In February, Gatto denied allegations in a report by Watson that he had “damaged the building industry and damaged the Victorian economy – maybe permanently” as a result of his work as a self-styled mediator and arbitrator between the CFMEU and construction firms.
“Unfortunately, they’re looking for a scapegoat, and I refuse to be one,” Gatto said on 3AW at the time.
“I’ve been down this track the last 30 or 40, years, you know: They’ve tried to do it in different royal commissions that they’ve had – nothing’s come out of them. They’ve rendered me a standover man with no evidence.”
Gatto filed defamation proceedings against Watson earlier this year in the NSW Supreme Court over accusations that he was a “murderous member of the mafia” in a segment on Nine’s 60 Minutes.
On Wednesday, 3AW host Jacqui Felgate said the two arrested were Gatto and his wife.
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Nick McKenzie is an Age investigative journalist who has three times been named the Graham Perkin Australian Journalist of the Year. A winner of 20 Walkley Awards, including the Gold Walkley, he investigates politics, business, foreign affairs and criminal justice.Connect via email.