A Michigan truck driver who was found guilty of setting Swift Transportation equipment on fire as part of a personal vendetta against the company has been sentenced to more than a decade in federal prison.
Viorel Pricop, 66, of Allen Park, was sentenced Friday to 10 years and one month in prison for setting six semi-trailers ablaze in California’s Inland Empire region and High Desert during a 10-month span. Judge Sunshine S. Sykes of the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California also ordered Pricop to pay more than $648,000 in restitution.
Investigators say Pricop set fire to at least 24 semi-trailers belonging to Swift Transportation in eight states after he was convicted in 2018 of transporting stolen cargo, according to court documents. The stolen cargo case stemmed from an investigation conducted by Swift.
“This defendant was given a second chance but chose to throw it away and go on a national campaign of revenge,” said U.S. Attorney Martin Estrada in a statement. “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.”
The fire spree began in 2020, court records say. Authorities say Pricop set the other fires in New Mexico, Texas, Arizona, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Arkansas and Alabama, mostly along Interstates 10 and 40. Drivers were sometimes asleep in their trucks when the fires were set, but no injuries were reported.
He also faces charges in New Mexico and Arizona.
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.
Authorities executed search warrants on Pricop’s tractor-trailer, personal vehicle and residence, where they discovered a gas torch, torch-style lighters, and record-keeping documents containing location information, such as cargo pickup and delivery dates which coincided with the time and location of several fires.
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