Metro Detroit Man Sets 25 Semi Trucks On Fire Across 8 States: Feds

ALLEN PARK, MI — An Allen Park man was arrested Tuesday in California after federal officials said he deliberately set 25 semi trucks on fire across eight states, causing more than $2 million in damages, according to a criminal complaint.

Viorel Pricop, 64, was charged with one count of arson of property in interstate commerce, which carries a sentence of five to 20 years in prison, according to the complaint. He was expected in a Detroit court Thursday.

Officials said Pricop set a blaze to semi trailers owned by Phoenix-based Swift Transportation while they were stopped at fuel stations or rest areas from June 2020 through September 2022, according to the complaint.

Most of the fires were set along Interstate 10 and Interstate 40, spanning from Barstow, California, to McCalla, Alabama, according to the complaint.

Federal officials said six of the fires were set in California, three in Arizona, nine in New Mexico, three in Texas and one each in Oklahoma, Louisiana, Arkansas and Alabama.

Most of the trailers were set on fire with paper and rags soaked in flammable liquid that were shoved between the rear tires, according to the complaint.

Federal agents believe Pricop targeted the trucks owned by Swift because the company assisted in the prosecution that sent him to prison in 2017, when he was convicted of interstate transportation of stolen property and filing a false IRS return, according to the complaint.

Pricop was sentenced to two years in prison, but was given credit for time previously served, and was released from prison in 2019, about a year before the fires started, according to the complaint.

Investigators traced a cell phone and a GPS navigation device Pricop was using in 24 of the 25 general areas where the fires were set, according to the complaint.

"An investigation of cell phone towers near the fires revealed that a specific GPS navigation device installed in a commercial truck was present at the fires," officials said in the complaint.

Federal agents then raided Pricop's home in Allen Park, where they found five videos of Swift trailers burning from two cell phones, as well as other physical evidence they believe links him to the fires, according to the complaint.