A Michigan man was sentenced to more than 10 years in federal prison for burning semi trucks in the Inland Empire.
Viorel Pricop, 66, of Allen Park, Michigan, received a sentence of 10 years and 1 month in prison for “maliciously setting fires to six semi-trailers” belonging to Phoenix-based Swift Transportation over the course of 10 months, the United States Department of Justice said in a news release.
Pricop is also ordered to pay nearly $650,000 in restitution as part of the verdict, which comes after he was convicted on March 12 of six counts of arson of vehicle or property in interstate commerce.
Between December 2021 and September 2022, Pricop burned trucks four trucks in Newberry Springs, Ludlow, Barstow and Hesperia in San Bernardino County and two trucks in Coachella in Riverside County.
In each of the incidents, the Swift-owned trailer was parked at or near a truck stop when a fire occurred on the trailer portion of the vehicle, mainly on or near the trailer tires.
Before and during this spree, Pricop burned at least 18 other Swift semis in other states ranging from California to MaCalla, Alabama, usually on Interstates 10 and 40, authorities said. He faces additional charges in New Mexico and Arizona.
He was identified using location data from the navigation device on his semi and his cell phone.
This isn’t Pricop’s first time targeting Swift. In 2018, he was convicted in connection with thefts from Swift Transportation vehicles beginning in 2010 and the tracking of merchandise fromm a “bait trailer” containing electronics in 2015.
“Swift investigators tracked those boxes to a storage facility in Michigan, and local law enforcement in Michigan arrested Pricop in possession of the boxes of electronic goods from the bait trailer,” the release said.
Pricop was sentenced to 26 months in prison, but he was freed from supervised release “in June 2019, approximately one year before the arsons in this case began.”
“This defendant was given a second chance but chose to throw it away and go on a national campaign of revenge,” said United States Attorney Martin Estrada. “By setting fire to trailer after trailer with the drivers inside the trucks, he recklessly put people’s lives at risk. Violent recidivist criminals such as this defendant will only be deterred with consequences and the sentence imposed today does just that.”
