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A pair of individuals have been detained as a component of an investigation into the dumping of thousands of tons of waste in a rural field in Oxfordshire.

Officials stated that a man in his late sixties was arrested at a property in Hampshire's Andover, while a man in his fifties was detained in the town of Slough in connection with the enormous mound of rubbish tipped near Kidlington, Oxfordshire.

These arrests come after a previous revelation which uncovered the existence of over 500 unauthorized sites throughout the country of England, including at least 11 so-called "large-scale sites" bigger than 20,000 tons.

A spokeswoman for the environment agency commented that the detentions were for ecological and money laundering crimes and represented a "vital step" in active probes. The two individuals have been released on bail.

Size of the Situation

The tipping ground in Kidlington, positioned between the River Cherwell and the A34 highway, is estimated to hold around 21,000 tons of rubbish in a pile which is up to 150m (490ft) in length and 6m (20ft) tall.

This heap of waste is composed of what appears to be treated domestic rubbish, fragmented plastic items, polystyrene, tyres and various household items.

It is just one example of 517 unauthorized tips in the country, at least 11 of which hold more than 20,000 metric tons of garbage. They feature a 280,000-tonne site in Cheshire, two 50,000-tonne sites in Lancashire and Cornwall and a 36,000-tonne site in Kent.

The overall figure of such larger locations is likely to be larger, as the environment body has earlier indicated it does not hold information on volume for every unauthorized dump.

A large proportion of sites are in agricultural areas, frequently concealed, and on land that should be arable land.

Organised Activity

Authorities report many are run by organized crime groups, who are making cash by asking for significantly less than licensed firms to receive and bury garbage.

Companies have to incur disposal fees to use legitimate disposal sites, contingent on the volume and nature of refuse they are trying to discard, and landfill tax is also applied at just over £126 per metric ton.

Community Frustration

Preparation work to clean up the Kidlington area site started earlier this month amid worries over the risk of combustion and the impact that would have on the close-by A-road.

A private waste clearance contractor has been granted the task to handle the area over the following 12 months period at a cost of £9.6m.

An enforcement manager for the national regulatory unit said that the agency would be seeking to recover the clearance funds under asset recovery laws from any party successfully prosecuted at the termination of its current inquiry.

She added that the recent arrests would help "push the probe forward" and enable the agency to "investigate more leads to understand precisely what transpired and who was implicated".

"This unauthorized dump at the site was an appalling and deliberate assault on our ecology and officials empathize with the community's anger at this horrific crime," she stated.

A senior minister praised the detentions, adding: "The illegal deposit of waste at the site is appalling and has led to significant harm to the natural world and distress to the nearby community.

"Our authorities is pledged to eliminating this type of illegal activity in the nation, by augmenting financing to tackle illegal dumping, hiring more officers and implementing tougher measures and penalties for those who flout the rules."

The apprehensions were carried out on the specified day by agents from a regional serious crime squad and follow an prior arrest of a man in his thirties from the Guildford area area in last November. He was let go pending more investigations.