Michigan man guilty of deliberately setting Swift Transportation semi trailers on fire in Arizona
An Arizona jury convicted a man accused of deliberately setting fires to semi trailers owned by Phoenix-based commercial trucking company Swift Transportation.
Michigan resident Viorel Pricop, 66, was found guilty by a federal jury on three counts of arson of a vehicle or property in interstate commerce, according to an August 28, 2025, statement from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Arizona.
Officials say that Pricop “maliciously” set fire to three semi trailers in Arizona as part of “of a larger pattern of arsons targeting Swift.” Two of the arsons took place in Willcox, Arizona, and one occurred in Holbrook, Arizona.
Pricop is accused of setting at least 16 other Swift trailers on fire between October 2021 and September 2022, with arsons occurring at locations spanning Barstow, California to McCalla, Alabama, with most occurring along I-10 and I-40.
Investigators tracked the arsons to Pricop using cellular data which showed that a navigation device had connected to cell towers in the vicinity and around the times of the fires. Pricop’s cell phone was also found to be present in the area of the trailer fires, according to federal authorities.
Additionally, investigators also seized a gas torch, lighters, and fuel-soaked rags after search warrants were executed on Pricop’s tractor trailer, personal vehicle, and residence in September 2022.
In March 2024, Pricop was found guilty on six counts of arson of vehicle or property in interstate commerce in the state of California.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of California explained the years-long history between Pricop and Swift leading up to the arson incidents:
“Swift Transportation and other trucking companies were victims of thefts between 2010 and 2014. Swift initiated its own investigation into those thefts and utilized bait trailers to catch thieves. In 2015, someone broke into one of the bait trailers and took boxes of electronic goods containing tracking devices. 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.
Pricop was convicted in 2018 in the Eastern District of Michigan for a tax offense and for transportation of stolen goods, charges stemming from the investigation conducted by Swift. Pricop was sentenced to time served in that case, amounting to approximately 26 months’ imprisonment. His term of supervised release ended in June 2019, approximately one year before the arsons in this case began.“
Pricop is scheduled for a sentencing hearing on November 13, 2025. He faces a mandatory minimum sentence of five years in prison and a statutory maximum of 20 years in prison for each count.