{"id":887812,"date":"2026-09-11T06:22:13","date_gmt":"2026-09-11T06:22:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/887812\/"},"modified":"2026-09-11T06:22:13","modified_gmt":"2026-09-11T06:22:13","slug":"bandidos-member-arrested-in-police-investigation-over-melton-tobacco-store-fire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/887812\/","title":{"rendered":"Bandidos member arrested in police investigation over Melton tobacco store fire"},"content":{"rendered":"

Police have arrested several men at a Bandidos outlaw motorcycle gang clubhouse in Ballarat as part of an ongoing investigation into an alleged Melbourne arson attack earlier this month.<\/p>\n

Detectives from Taskforce Echo, established to tackle crime involving outlaw motorcycle gangs (OMCGs), executed several warrants in the Ballarat area today in relation to multiple incidents.<\/p>\n

One of the warrants was executed this morning at the Bandidos OMCG clubhouse at Greenbank Court in Delacombe.<\/p>\n

Several people have been arrested, including a 32-year-old man police say is a patched member of the Bandidos OMCG.<\/p>\n

The investigation comes after a botched alleged arson attack at a tobacconist in Melbourne’s west on September 3.<\/p>\n

Emergency services were initially called shortly after 2:50am to the tobacco shop near the corner of High and Alexandra streets in Melton was on fire.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Police say one offender fled the scene following the attack, leaving his injured partner at the scene. (ABC News: Georgia Lenton-Williams)<\/p>\n

CCTV from the scene shows a ute reversing into the building, before two men get out with what appears to be jerry cans full of fuel.<\/p>\n

A few moments later, a ball of flame engulfs both men.<\/p>\n

First responders located a man with significant burns nearby who was subsequently airlifted to the Alfred Hospital.<\/p>\n

The 23-year-old man remains in a critical condition with what police have described as life-altering burns to both his upper and lower body.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Police have arrested several men at a Bandidos outlaw motorcycle gang clubhouse in Ballarat as part of an…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":887813,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[45387,29621,25653,64,63,220609,133124,48,154968,44381,44,271592,32031,1158,145932,10702],"class_list":["post-887812","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-arrest","tag-arson","tag-attack","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-bandidos","tag-bikies","tag-crime","tag-echo","tag-illicit","tag-news","tag-omcg","tag-organised-crime","tag-police","tag-taskforce","tag-tobacco"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/887812","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=887812"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/887812\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/887813"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=887812"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=887812"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=887812"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}