Truck driver serial arsonist set 6 fires in California and 25 across the nation, feds say

In a two-year revenge scheme, a truck driver went around the country — including the Coachella Valley — setting fire to 25 tractor-trailers belonging to a single company, federal prosecutors say.

The last two fires were in September at the TA travel center just off Interstate 10 in Coachella. The drivers were sleeping inside their cabins at the time.

Authorities believe Viorel Pricop set the fires because the company, Swift Transportation, helped the government convict him in a prior criminal scheme that involved transporting stolen cargo, The Detroit News reported.

Pricop, 64, was arrested Tuesday in Michigan, where he lives. He's charged with arson of property in interstate commerce, which carries a penalty of five to 20 years in prison if convicted, a press release from the U.S. attorney's office in Los Angeles said.

The fires were set between June 2020 and September 2022, according to a court affidavit filed by Jonathan Smith, a special agent with the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. The affidavit confirms that Swift cooperated with an earlier criminal case against Pricop.

Smith wrote that in many of the cases, including in Coachella, drivers were sleeping inside when the fires were started. The affidavit does not mention any injuries. Besides California, there were fires in Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico and Arizona.

Beyond the two in Coachella, the four others in California were in Newberry Springs, Ludlow and Barstow (all off Interstate 40) and Hesperia (off Interstate 15).

Prosecutors say most of the fires around the country were off interstates 40 and 10.

The most recent two fires were set just after midnight Sept. 14 at the TA travel center in Coachella. The ATF says Pricop came to the valley often. Months earlier, on March 30, he'd been seen at a nearby Love's Travel Stop and in the area driving a 1997 Kenworth truck that he owned, according to Smith's affidavit.

In his earlier criminal case, Pricop served more than two years in prison before being released in 2018, Smith wrote. He was on supervised release until mid-2019.

A year later, the first fires were set.

Eric Hartley is The Desert Sun's news editor. Email him at eric.hartley@desertsun.com.

This article originally appeared on Palm Springs Desert Sun: Arsonist truck driver Viorel Pricop set fires in California, ATF says