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Two men have been taken into custody as an element of an inquiry into the tipping of thousands of metric tons of refuse in a field in Oxfordshire.

Law enforcement stated that a 69-year-old was detained at a dwelling in Andover, Hampshire, while a 54-year-old was arrested in Slough, Berkshire in connection with the huge pile of garbage tipped near Kidlington, Oxfordshire.

These detentions occur a week after a prior investigation which uncovered the existence of in excess of 500 unlawful tips across England, featuring at minimum 11 so-called "super sites" bigger than 20,000 tons.

A official for the environment body commented that the apprehensions were for environmental and money laundering violations and were a "crucial step" in continuing probes. The apprehended men have been released on conditional release.

Size of the Situation

The dump in near Kidlington, situated between the Cherwell River and the A34 road, is thought to contain approximately 21,000 metric tons of rubbish in a heap which is up to 150m (490ft) lengthwise and 6m (20ft) tall.

This heap of rubbish is made up of what looks to be sorted domestic rubbish, fragmented plastics, Styrofoam, tires and other everyday objects.

It constitutes just a single of 517 unlawful tips in England, at minimum 11 of which contain in excess of 20,000 metric tons of rubbish. They encompass a 280,000-tonne site in Cheshire, two 50,000-tonne sites in Lancashire and Cornwall county and a 36,000-tonne tip in the county of Kent.

The actual figure of such larger locations is likely to be larger, as the environmental body has earlier indicated it does not hold records on tonnage for each illegal site.

A large proportion of such locations are in rural areas, often out of sight, and on land that is intended to be arable property.

Organised Activity

Authorities report numerous are run by organized crime groups, who are generating profit by demanding significantly less than lawful firms to take and landfill waste.

Businesses have to pay gate fees to use licensed landfill sites, depending on the amount and nature of refuse they are trying to discard, and a waste tax is also levied at just over £126 per tonne.

Community Outrage

Initial work to clear the Kidlington site started earlier this month following fears over the risk of combustion and the impact that would have on the nearby highway.

A private waste removal firm has been granted the job to deal with the site over the following 12 months at a expense of £9.6m.

An investigations manager for the government environment division stated that the body would be looking to claim back the clean-up funds under asset recovery acts from any individual successfully prosecuted at the end of its current investigation.

She added that this week's apprehensions would help "drive the inquiry forward" and allow authorities to "follow more lines of inquiry to determine in detail what happened and who was implicated".

"The illegal dump at Kidlington was an shocking and calculated assault on our ecology and we share the local frustration at this horrific crime," she said.

A cabinet official supported the arrests, adding: "This unauthorized tipping of rubbish at Kidlington is disgraceful and has resulted in substantial damage to the ecology and upset to the nearby residents.

"The administration is pledged to eliminating this type of illegal activity across the country, by increasing financing to address waste crime, employing more officers and introducing tougher controls and sanctions for those who violate the regulations."

The apprehensions were carried out on Thursday by personnel from a specialist serious crime unit and come after an previous apprehension of a 39-year-old from the Guildford region in the autumn. He was released pending additional investigations.