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Two individuals have been arrested as a component of an investigation into the illegal deposit of thousands of tonnes of waste in a open field in Oxfordshire, England.

Officials stated that a 69-year-old was apprehended at a property in the town of Andover, while a man in his fifties was arrested in the town of Slough in relation with the huge heap of garbage deposited near the area of Kidlington.

These detentions occur a week after a previous investigation which uncovered the presence of in excess of 500 illegal sites in England, featuring at a minimum of 11 so-called "major sites" greater than 20,000 tons.

A representative for the regulatory authorities commented that the arrests were for environment-related and money laundering violations and constituted a "vital step" in continuing investigations. The two individuals have been released on conditional release.

Scale of the Issue

The tipping ground in the Kidlington area, situated between the Cherwell River and the A34 road, is believed to hold around 21,000 tons of waste in a mound which is up to 150m (490ft) lengthwise and 6m (20ft) tall.

This pile of garbage is made up of what looks to be processed household refuse, shredded plastic items, expanded polystyrene, tires and various household articles.

It represents just a single of 517 illegal tips in the country, at minimum 11 of which contain over 20,000 tonnes of rubbish. Such sites include a 280,000-tonne site in the county of Cheshire, two 50,000-tonne sites in Lancashire county and Cornwall and a 36,000-tonne dump in Kent.

The overall amount of such major sites is probably to be higher, as the environmental authority has in the past indicated it does not maintain data on volume for every illegal site.

Most sites are in agricultural settings, frequently hidden, and on land that is intended to be farm land.

Organised Enterprise

Law enforcement say numerous are operated by organised crime gangs, who are generating cash by demanding far less than licensed companies to take and bury garbage.

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

Local Anger

Preparatory operations to clear the Kidlington area location started earlier this month amid worries over the threat of fire and the consequences that would have on the close-by A-road.

A contracted waste removal firm has been awarded the job to deal with the location over the following 12 months period at a cost of £9.6m.

An compliance official for the government environment division stated that the authority would be looking to recoup the clean-up funds under asset recovery acts from any individual prosecuted at the termination of its active inquiry.

She noted that the recent detentions would help "push the investigation forward" and permit the agency to "follow more avenues to determine exactly what transpired and who was implicated".

"The illegal dump at this location was an atrocious and deliberate affront on our ecology and we empathize with the community's frustration at this horrific act," she remarked.

A government official welcomed the arrests, adding: "This unauthorized tipping of rubbish at Kidlington is disgraceful and has caused substantial harm to the natural world and anguish to the nearby community.

"Our government is pledged to eradicating this type of crime throughout the country, by boosting funds to combat environmental crime, employing more staff and introducing more severe checks and penalties for those who flout the law."

The detentions were carried out on a recent Thursday by agents from a specialist serious crime team and are in addition to an prior apprehension of a 39-year-old from the Guildford area area in November. He was set free pending more investigations.