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Two individuals have been taken into custody as an element of an inquiry into the illegal deposit of many thousands of tonnes of rubbish in a field in Oxfordshire, England.

Officials stated that a 69-year-old was detained at a property in Andover, Hampshire, while a man in his fifties was taken into custody in Slough in association with the enormous heap of waste tipped near Kidlington.

These apprehensions follow a prior investigation which exposed the presence of more than 500 unlawful tips throughout England, encompassing at a minimum of 11 so-called "super sites" bigger than 20,000 tons.

A spokeswoman for the regulatory agency stated that the arrests were for ecological and money laundering offences and constituted a "crucial step" in continuing investigations. The two individuals have been set free on pre-trial release.

Size of the Situation

The illegal site in Kidlington, situated between the Cherwell River and the A34, is believed to house about 21,000 tonnes of refuse in a mound which is up to 150m (490ft) long and 6m (20ft) high.

This heap of rubbish is composed of what appears to be treated household waste, shredded plastic items, polystyrene, tires and various everyday objects.

It represents just one example of 517 illegal dumps throughout England, at a minimum of 11 of which are estimated to hold more than 20,000 tons of garbage. These include a 280,000-tonne site in Cheshire, two 50,000-tonne areas in Lancashire and Cornwall and a 36,000-tonne tip in the county of Kent.

The total number of such bigger sites is expected to be greater, as the environment agency has in the past acknowledged it does not hold data on volume for all unauthorized tip.

The majority sites are in rural areas, typically hidden, and on land that should be agricultural land.

Organized Enterprise

Authorities say numerous are run by organised crime gangs, who are earning cash by demanding much less than lawful firms to accept and bury garbage.

Firms have to pay disposal fees to use legitimate landfill sites, depending on the amount and type of waste they are trying to get rid of, and a waste tax is also levied at just over £126 per tonne.

Local Anger

Preparatory operations to clean up the affected site commenced earlier this month due to fears over the potential of fire and the impact that would have on the close-by major road.

A private waste removal firm has been given the task to remediate the site over the next 12 months period at a expense of £9.6m.

An enforcement manager for the national regulatory unit stated that the authority would be aiming to recover the clean-up costs under asset recovery laws from any individual successfully prosecuted at the termination of its current inquiry.

She added that these detentions would help "push the investigation forward" and enable the agency to "pursue more lines of inquiry to ascertain precisely what happened and who was implicated".

"This illegal tip at the site was an shocking and intentional attack on our environment and officials understand the local anger at this egregious crime," she remarked.

A cabinet official welcomed the detentions, adding: "This unlawful deposit of waste at Kidlington is disgraceful and has caused considerable detriment to the natural world and distress to the nearby residents.

"Our authorities is committed to stamping out this category of illegal activity in the nation, by boosting financing to tackle waste crime, hiring more staff and introducing more severe controls and fines for those who flout the rules."

The arrests were made on Thursday by agents from a dedicated organised crime team and come after an earlier arrest of a man in his thirties from the Surrey area in last November. He was set free subject to additional investigations.