A Michigan man appeared in federal court Wednesday in connection with arson fires across eight states involving 25 commercial trucks owned by Phoenix-based Swift Transportation. The fires -some of which occurred in Arizona- happened between June 2020 and September 2022 and mostly occurred along Interstate 10 and Interstate 40, according to the criminal complaint.
Viorel Pricop of Allen Park, MI was taken into custody Tuesday in Michigan on one count of arson of property engaged in interstate commerce. The charge carries a mandatory minimum sentence of 5 years in prison although Pricop, 64, could be ordered to serve up to 20 years.
Pricop will be transported to California for trial on the current charge, although additional charges are expected in connection with the arson spree, which cost millions of dollars in damage to Swift Transportation’s trucks, trailers, and customer cargo.
Three of the truck fires linked to Pricop were in Arizona. He is also linked to nine fires in New Mexico, six in California, three in Texas, and one each in Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, and Oklahoma.
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The criminal complaint filed in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California upon Pricop’s arrest this week shows investigators discovered a probable motive for his alleged crime spree – revenge against the company that cooperated in his conviction in a 2015 stolen property theft ring.
According to court records, Pricop was convicted in a Michigan federal court for interstate transporting stolen goods by removing high-value merchandise from a Swift truck, one of several trucking companies hit along I-40 in Arizona and New Mexico.
Company officials cooperated with federal investigators and Pricop ended up in prison for two years. He was released from all supervision in that case in June 2019; the first Swift truck fire attributed to Pricop occurred one year later.
The first few fires were believed to have been caused by mechanical issues, but it did not take long for Swift employees to recognize something suspicious was occurring with their trucks from Alabama to California. The company contracted with specialized fire investigators and in 2021 the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) got involved.
“Swift employee stated this number of similar fire events had never before occurred in company history,” ATF Special Agent Jonathan Smith wrote in the criminal complaint.
ATF is the primary agency responsible for enforcing federal laws pertaining to destructive devices, explosives, and arson in interstate commerce.
Investigators identified a pattern to the fires – for instance, they occurred in or on the trailer portion of the vehicle, mainly on or near the trailer tires, In addition, similar methods of igniting the fire were detected, as well as the fact the fires occurred late at night, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office which will handle the prosecutions.
High-tech detective methods were also undertaken, with investigators reviewing records of cell phone towers near the fires. This revealed a specific GPS navigation device installed in a commercial truck was present at 10 of the earlier fires.
The device was installed on a vehicle owned and operated by Pricop, the criminal complaint states.
On March 30, ATF agents made contact with Pricop at a truck stop in California. The next day, investigators surreptitiously installed a tracking device on Pricop’s truck while he was inside a truck stop in Arizona.
The investigation ramped up, with subpoenas issued for Pricop’s phone records. Through “historical cellular data analysis and ping warrants” it was revealed his cellphone “was present in the general area of 24 of the 25 fires,” according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office statement about Pricop’s arrest.
But then there was not another fire attributed to Pricop for more than five months.
When two fires were set at a California truck stop on Sept. 14, electronic records put Pricop -or at least his cellphone and the tracking devices- in the vicinity of those fires.
On Sept. 16, search warrants executed on Pricop’s vehicles and Michigan residence yielded physical evidence connecting him to the arson spree. Pricop’s logbooks were also seized, as well as bills of lading and shipping receipts containing information that put Pricop’s truck in the area of the fires, according to the criminal complaint.
Two of the fires attributed to Pricop occurred around 2:30 a.m. on Feb. 7 at the Travel Centers of America off I-10 in Willcox. The truck stop holds about 200 semi-trucks, according to Willcox Public Safety Director Dale Hadfield.
Fortunately, the drivers of the two targeted Swift Transportation trucks were able to unhitch their cabs from the trailers and drive to safety. The incident was immediately reported to the ATF and led to yet another warning from Swift and trucking industry organizations for drivers to use caution when parking overnight.
Federal public records also show Pricop, his wife, and their trucking company became the target of a tax fraud investigation started in 2013 after their lavish lifestyle (paying cash for a Ferrari and a Mercedes Benz) came under question despite reporting less than $115,000 income in three years.
Unknown to IRS investigators, Pricop was about to become the subject of an insurance fraud investigation involving the thefts along I-40. Part of Pricop’s sentence in the stolen property case included a court order to pay the IRS nearly $502,000 in back taxes and penalties.
