A Michigan truck driver accused of being a serial arsonist responsible for setting blazes across the country has been found guilty in California for setting Swift Transportation equipment on fire as part of a personal vendetta against the company.
Jurors on Tuesday found Viorel Pricop, 66, of Allen Park in metropolitan Detroit, guilty of six counts of arson of vehicle or property in interstate commerce after a 16-day trial. Investigators said Pricop, who was charged in U.S. District Court for the Central District of California in December 2022, set fire to at least 24 semi-trailers belonging to Swift Transportation in eight states after he was convicted in 2018 for transporting stolen cargo. That earlier case stemmed from an investigation conducted by Swift.
The California fires occurred in San Bernardino and Riverside counties from December 2021 to September 2022, prosecutors said. Pricop is accused of setting the other fires in New Mexico, Texas, Arizona, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Arkansas and Alabama, mostly along Interstates 10 and 40 from June 2020 to March 2022, charging documents say. Drivers were sometimes asleep in their trucks when the fires were set, but no injuries were reported. Pricop faces federal charges in other states.
Swift Transportation, based in Arizona, told investigators this number of fires had never occurred in company history, prompting company officials to hire fire investigation consultants to determine the cause. Investigators uncovered a pattern of similar methods used to light the trailers on fire, including where the fires began on the vehicles and the times they were set, prosecutors said.
Cell tower data near some of the fires revealed that a navigation device installed in a commercial tractor-style truck had connected to the towers around the times of the fires. Law enforcement officials determined the device was installed on a vehicle operated by Pricop, prosecutors said.
Analysis of Pricop’s cell phone showed he was in the area of the fires, investigators said. Search warrants executed on Pricop’s tractor-trailer, personal vehicle and residence in September 2022 yielded evidence, such as a gas torch, torch-style lighters and documents showing cargo pickup and delivery dates that aligned with the times and locations of some of the fires.
Pricop “went on a rampage of retaliation” against Swift Transportation, which linked a 2015 theft to Pricop, said U.S. Attorney Martin Estrada.
Swift utilized bait trailers containing tracking devices to catch thieves following a series of thefts. Company investigators traced stolen boxes to a storage facility in Michigan, leading to Pricop’s arrest. He was convicted in 2018 for a tax offense and for transportation of stolen goods, which stemmed from the Swift investigation. His supervised release ended in June 2019, about a year before the Swift equipment fires began, prosecutors said.
“Rather than take advantage of the second chance offered to him, he chose an incredibly reckless and dangerous path. We will not accept arson and other violent crime on our streets, and I am grateful that this defendant will now be held to account,” Estrada said.
Pricop is scheduled to appear in court for sentencing on June 7.
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