Mick Gatto arrested as police descend on Mount Martha property

Police have raided the homes of underworld figure 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.

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