TUCSON, ARIZONA — A Detroit-area man has been sentenced to 10 years in federal prison after a jury found he maliciously set fire to three commercial semi-trailers belonging to Swift Transportation, federal prosecutors said.

Viorel Pricop, 67, of Allen Park, Michigan, was sentenced Thursday to 120 months by U.S. District Judge John C. Hinderaker, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office. The sentencing follows an eight-day trial in which a jury convicted Pricop on three counts of arson of a vehicle or property in interstate commerce on Aug. 21, 2024.

Authorities said the three trailers were torched in Arizona — two in Willcox and one in Holbrook — and were part of a broader pattern targeting the Phoenix-based trucking company. Prosecutors alleged Pricop set at least 16 additional Swift trailers on fire across multiple states between October 2021 and September 2022, with incidents stretching from Barstow, California, to McCalla, Alabama, largely along Interstate 10 and Interstate 40.

Federal officials also noted Pricop faced arson charges in other jurisdictions tied to some of those additional fires, including a 2024 trial in the Central District of California, where he was found guilty of six arsons.

Investigators said Pricop previously had a federal conviction in Michigan: in 2018, he was convicted in the Eastern District of Michigan for a tax offense and transportation of stolen goods stemming from an investigation involving Swift. He served about 26 months and completed supervised release in June 2019, roughly two years before the arson cases in this investigation began.

The investigation in the Arizona case was led by the ATF Albuquerque Field Office and Phoenix Field Division, with assistance from ATF fire and forensic labs, certified fire investigators, and ATF’s national cellular analytics resources. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Arizona (Tucson) handled the prosecution.

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