An Italian businesswoman who has been missing for seven years was murdered and her body fed to pigs by the Calabrian 'Ndrangheta mafia, Italian anti-mafia authorities in Catanzaro said Thursday, Azernews reports, citing ANSA.

Maria Chindamo, a 42-year-old Calabrian businesswoman who disappeared at Limbadi near Vibo Valentia on May 6 2016, was killed by an 'Ndrangheta clan that wanted to get their hands on the property she had been left by her husband when he committed suicide, said the local Anti-Mafia Directorate (DDA).

The mobster who killed her and fed her body to the pigs, police said, was Salvatore Ascone, 57, who was arrested Thursday in a huge anti-'Ndrangheta sweep across Italy.

'Ndarngheta, Italy's most powerful and richest mafia thanks to its control of the European cocaine trade, often disposes of bodies by feeding them to pigs.