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Two men have been arrested as a component of an investigation into the illegal deposit of many thousands of metric tons of refuse in a field in Oxfordshire, England.

Officials stated that a 69-year-old was detained at a property in Hampshire's Andover, while a man in his fifties was taken into custody in Slough, Berkshire in relation with the enormous mound of rubbish deposited near Kidlington, Oxfordshire.

These arrests follow a previous revelation which uncovered the operation of in excess of 500 unauthorized sites throughout England, encompassing at minimum 11 so-called "major sites" greater than 20,000 tonnes.

A official for the regulatory body stated that the arrests were for environmental and money laundering violations and constituted a "key step" in active probes. The two individuals have been released on conditional release.

Scale of the Situation

The illegal site in Kidlington, located between the river Cherwell and the A34 road, is believed to house about 21,000 tons of rubbish in a pile which is up to 150m (490ft) in length and 6m (20ft) in height.

This heap of rubbish is consists of what looks to be sorted residential waste, chopped up plastic materials, polystyrene, tyres and assorted household objects.

It is just a single of 517 illegal dumps in England, at least 11 of which contain in excess of 20,000 tonnes of garbage. They include a 280,000-tonne area in Cheshire, two 50,000-tonne locations in Lancashire and Cornwall county and a 36,000-tonne dump in Kent.

The total number of such larger sites is probably to be greater, as the environment authority has previously indicated it does not hold records on volume for each unlawful tip.

The majority sites are in countryside settings, typically out of sight, and on land that is zoned as agricultural ground.

Criminal Activity

Law enforcement report a significant number are operated by organised crime gangs, who are making cash by charging much less than licensed companies to accept and dispose of waste.

Firms have to be liable for disposal fees to use lawful disposal sites, contingent on the quantity and nature of refuse they are trying to discard, and a waste tax is also applied at just over £126 per ton.

Local Anger

Initial efforts to remove the affected dump commenced recently following concerns over the threat of combustion and the impact that would have on the nearby A-road.

A private clean-up contractor has been given the contract to handle the location over the following 12 months at a cost of £9.6m.

An compliance official for the government environment division said that the authority would be looking to claim back the clearance expenses under asset recovery laws from anyone successfully convicted at the termination of its current case.

She noted that this week's detentions would help "move the probe forward" and enable the agency to "follow more lines of inquiry to understand in detail what transpired and who was implicated".

"This unlawful site at Kidlington was an atrocious and intentional affront on our ecology and officials share the community's anger at this egregious offence," she remarked.

A government minister supported the detentions, stating: "This unlawful tipping of waste at Kidlington is disgraceful and has led to significant harm to the ecology and anguish to the surrounding population.

"Our authorities is dedicated to stamping out this type of criminality throughout the nation, by increasing financing to combat environmental crime, recruiting more personnel and implementing stricter controls and penalties for those who flout the regulations."

The arrests were executed on a recent Thursday by personnel from a regional serious crime team and are in addition to an prior apprehension of a 39-year-old from the Guildford area area in last November. He was let go pending more enquiries.