An Italian mother who disappeared seven years ago was murdered and her body fed to pigs by a mobster of the notorious ‘Ndrangheta mafia, police announced today.
Maria Chindamo, 42, a mother of three, disappeared from her farm in Calabria in southern Italy in May 2016 after she refused mafia offers to buy her land.
It has now emerged that her neighbor and mobster, Salvatore Ascone, 57, allegedly killed Chindamo because she rejected offers to buy the land she inherited from her late husband, who committed suicide, according to anti-mafia police.
Ascone was one of 84 ‘Ndrangheta mafia gangsters arrested today by hundreds of Italian police officers in a massive crackdown on the feared Italian crime syndicate.
The gangster is accused of killing Chindamo along with two other people, one of whom was a minor and has since died, reports La Stampa.
Maria Chindamo, 42, a mother of three, disappeared from her farm in Calabria in southern Italy in May 2016 after she refused mafia offers to buy her land
It has now emerged that her neighbor and mobster, Salvatore Ascone, 57, (pictured) allegedly killed Chindamo because she turned down offers to buy the land she inherited from her late husband, who committed suicide, according to anti-mafia police .
Special police forces carry out raids in the Spanish neighborhoods of Naples, Italy, on Thursday as part of the crackdown on the mafia
“The murder of Maria Chindamo was also decided to punish the attitude of a free and independent woman, who had enrolled in university and wanted to become an agricultural entrepreneur,” said Catanzaro’s chief prosecutor, Nicola Gratteri.
On May 6, 2016, police found Chindamo’s car abandoned with the engine still running. Traces of the mother of three children’s blood and bits of hair were found inside the vehicle, but her body was never discovered.
Police say this is because Ascone allegedly killed Chindamo and fed her body to pigs that had not eaten for days.
Chindamo had raised her three children on the farm alone after separating from her husband, who later committed suicide after the divorce.
He was arrested in 2019 but released due to lack of evidence. However, in 2021, a mafia informant who shared a prison cell with mobster Emanuele Mancuso.
Mancuso allegedly told the Mafia informant that Ascone killed Chindamo because she had refused to sell her farm and believed her husband’s family would be blamed for her death.
“He made her disappear, knowing full well that the husband’s family would be held responsible,” Mancuso is said to have said. the times reported at the time.
The ‘Ndrangheta, of which Ascone was said to be a part, has now surpassed Cosa Nostra as the most powerful mafia group in the country, and one of the largest criminal networks in the world.
The gangsters often dispose of their victims’ bodies by feeding them to the pigs.
This morning, 600 Italian police officers arrested 84 suspected mafia gangsters in a major raid across Italy.
The suspects are charged with criminal mafia association; murder; possession, production and trafficking of drugs and weapons; criminal tax evasion and money laundering, reports Il Giornale.
A man is detained as special police forces raid the mafia in Rome, Italy, on Thursday
This morning, 600 Italian police officers arrested 84 suspected mafia gangsters in a major raid across Italy
In recent years, European authorities have campaigned against ‘Ndrangheta, arguably the wealthiest organized crime group in the world.
The group exploited tens of billions of dollars in cocaine revenue over decades to expand its criminal reach across Europe and to several continents as the Sicilian mafia lost its influence.
In May of this year, police arrested more than 100 suspected gangsters believed to belong to the ‘Ndrangheta mafia.
Under cover of darkness, thousands of police officers in Germany, Italy, France, Belgium, Portugal and Spain raided the suspected gangsters’ homes in May as part of an investigation codenamed “Operation Eureka.”
In Germany, more than 1,000 officers came to their homes and offices in the western state of North Rhine-Westphalia and Rhineland-Palatinate in the east, arresting more than 20 suspected criminals in the raids.
And in Italy, 1,400 Carabinieri police officers, aided by helicopters, arrested 108 suspected ‘Ndrangheta gangsters in the major operation that seized huge piles of cash, drugs and firearms.