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A pair of individuals have been taken into custody as a component of an investigation into the dumping of many thousands of metric tons of refuse in a open field in Oxfordshire.

Officials indicated that a 69-year-old was detained at a dwelling in Hampshire's Andover, while a man in his fifties was detained in the town of Slough in relation with the enormous heap of waste deposited near Kidlington, Oxfordshire.

These apprehensions occur a week after a prior report which exposed the presence of over 500 illegal dumps throughout England, encompassing at minimum 11 so-called "super sites" bigger than 20,000 metric tons.

A official for the environmental agency stated that the detentions were for environment-related and money laundering offences and represented a "key step" in active investigations. Both men have been released on conditional release.

Scale of the Situation

The dump in Kidlington, situated between the River Cherwell and the A34 road, is believed to house about 21,000 metric tons of refuse in a pile which is up to 150m (490ft) in length and 6m (20ft) high.

This heap of rubbish is made up of what appears to be processed domestic refuse, shredded plastics, Styrofoam, tires and other household items.

It represents just one of 517 unauthorized dumps throughout the country, at a minimum of 11 of which hold over 20,000 tons of waste. These include a 280,000-tonne site in Cheshire, two 50,000-tonne sites in Lancashire and Cornwall and a 36,000-tonne dump in Kent.

The total amount of such major sites is probably to be greater, as the regulatory body has in the past stated it does not possess records on tonnage for every unlawful tip.

A large proportion of such locations are in agricultural locations, often out of sight, and on land that should be farm ground.

Organised Operations

Police report a significant number are managed by organized crime groups, who are generating profit by demanding significantly less than lawful companies to take and landfill rubbish.

Businesses have to be liable for gate fees to use lawful landfill sites, depending on the volume and nature of material they are trying to get rid of, and landfill tax is also charged at just over £126 per tonne.

Local Anger

Preparatory operations to clear the Kidlington area location started earlier this month following fears over the risk of fire and the effect that would have on the nearby major road.

A commercial clean-up company has been granted the job to handle the location over the coming 12 months at a cost of £9.6m.

An compliance officer for the government regulatory unit said that the body would be looking to recover the remediation expenses under asset recovery laws from any party prosecuted at the end of its active inquiry.

She further stated that this week's arrests would help "drive the investigation forward" and permit the agency to "investigate more lines of inquiry to understand precisely what happened and who was implicated".

"This unlawful tip at the site was an shocking and intentional assault on our natural surroundings and the authorities share the community's outrage at this egregious act," she remarked.

A senior official welcomed the detentions, commenting: "The illegal deposit of garbage at this location is disgraceful and has caused substantial damage to the natural world and distress to the surrounding population.

"Our administration is pledged to eradicating this kind of criminality across the UK, by increasing resources to tackle illegal dumping, recruiting more officers and introducing more severe controls and penalties for those who break the regulations."

The arrests were executed on a recent Thursday by agents from a specialist serious crime team and follow an previous apprehension of a man in his thirties from the Guildford region in last November. He was set free pending more investigations.