Prominent Big Build bikie charged in extortion probe

A police taskforce has charged a high-ranking Bandido bikie and former union official who previously wielded significant control on major Victorian government projects over allegations he extorted a building company.

On Thursday morning, detectives from Taskforce Hawk along with officers from anti-bikie taskforce Echo and the Viper organised squad swooped on high-profile bikie figure and former CFMEU representative Joel Leavitt.

Leavitt’s arrest marks the most significant operation since Hawk was launched 10 months ago in response to a series of revelations by this masthead that Victoria’s Labor government had failed to combat entrenched organised crime and union corruption on taxpayer-funded infrastructure projects.

This masthead previously exposed Leavitt’s highly influential role as a CFMEU health and safety official on the $530 million Hurstbridge Rail Line Upgrade and other projects.

It comes after a landmark report by corruption-busting lawyer Geoffrey Watson was released claiming CFMEU lawless behaviour had cost taxpayers $15 billion, and the state government was too scared to stop it.

In his report, released through the Queensland commission of inquiry into the CFMEU on Wednesday, Watson described Leavitt as “a brutal criminal with a bad criminal record” and a patched bikie.

Watson said in the report that Leavitt joined the union in 2017 and was a “Young Activist”, close to former top official Joe Myles.

Leavitt was previously involved in the CFMEU in Queensland but was recruited to the union’s Victorian operation by Myles.

Watson found Leavitt was appointed as a health and safety representative in 2019 without an election.

“The records are unclear, but it seems Leavitt never underwent any training for this role. As part of his employment package, Leavitt was earning more than $200,000 and given a government-funded car.”

Leavitt’s role, including his use of a car assigned to conduct worker safety checks but used to engage in bikie gang activities, was spotlighted at the beginning of this masthead’s Building Bad series in 2024.

Anti-bikie detectives realised Leavitt had a Big Build union role when he was shot at the Rebels bikie clubhouse last year, sparking an ongoing Echo taskforce probe, Operation Spitfire, into what police said was suspected “rivalry” involving “outlaw motorcycle gangs”.

Leavitt used the rail line upgrade vehicle to drive himself, bleeding from a gunshot wound, to the Footscray Hospital, after which the car was seized for forensic testing by Operation Spitfire.

In a statement, Victoria Police said detectives had arrested three men as part of an investigation into blackmail.

A 32-year-old Eltham man, who was previously a senior CFMEU official and a current patched member of the Bandidos OMCG, was charged with blackmail and failing to provide a pin code. He is due in court on Thursday afternoon.

A 32-year-old Watsonia man, also a current patched member of the Bandidos, was charged with failing to comply with a direction to assist and bailed to appear in court in April.

A 55-year-old Mernda man was released.

“The investigation relates to allegations of blackmail committed at a property in Brooklyn on 19 January 2026, when a demand was made for the victim to pay $663,000,” it said.

The police operation represents a major breakthrough because Leavitt’s influence spans the outlaw bikie world and the union, and he was such a significant figure on the Big Build.

The arrests come as the Victorian government is facing intense scrutiny in the wake of Watson’s report which found that intimidation and graft on the state’s construction sites was fuelled by the state’s $100 billion Big Build program.

It also follows this masthead’s revelation on Thursday of a fresh round of firebombings, one at a building site in Southbank and another outside a construction executive’s home.

The attacks, both in January, are connected to about a dozen firebombings over the past 18 months, and industry sources, speaking anonymously due to fear of repercussions, suggest that gangland syndicates believe they can shrug off growing police and regulatory attention, as with Victoria’s tobacco wars.

The January 11 Southbank firebombing targeted machinery being used by the Delta Group, a nationwide demolition giant that had two of its earthmoving rigs – worth up to an estimated $2 million each – torched on other large sites in late 2024.

The late January attack on the construction company employee involved the torching of the man’s car outside his home and is connected to two other firebombings last year.

Victorian Opposition Leader Jess Wilson stepped up her attacks on the Labor government after the release of Watson’s report and Thursday’s arrests and reiterated her call for a royal commission into the CFMEU in Victoria.

“This is organised crime. This is bikies. These are criminals at the end of the day. These are… the executives of the CFMEU,” Wilson told 3AW on Thursday morning. “And it saddens me to think about the good people working on these sites, the tradies on there… but unfortunately, the criminal element has been allowed to flourish under this government, and the premier is failing to answer.”

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