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A pair of individuals have been taken into custody as part of an probe into the tipping of several thousand of tons of refuse in a rural field in Oxfordshire.

Law enforcement stated that a man in his late sixties was detained at a property in Hampshire's Andover, while a man in his fifties was detained in Slough in connection with the huge heap of garbage deposited near the area of Kidlington.

These apprehensions follow a prior revelation which exposed the presence of over 500 unauthorized sites in England, including at a minimum of 11 so-called "super sites" larger than 20,000 tonnes.

A representative for the environmental agency stated that the detentions were for ecological and money laundering crimes and were a "vital step" in ongoing investigations. The two individuals have been released on bail.

Size of the Issue

The illegal site in Kidlington, situated between the Cherwell River and the A34 road, is believed to house around 21,000 metric tons of waste in a heap which is up to 150m (490ft) long and 6m (20ft) in height.

This mound of rubbish is composed of what looks to be sorted domestic waste, fragmented plastics, expanded polystyrene, tires and other domestic items.

It constitutes just one of 517 unlawful sites in England, at a minimum of 11 of which hold in excess of 20,000 tons of garbage. These feature a 280,000-tonne site in the county of Cheshire, two 50,000-tonne sites in Lancashire and Cornwall and a 36,000-tonne site in the county of Kent.

The overall figure of such major locations is expected to be greater, as the environmental agency has in the past stated it does not maintain data on volume for every illegal dump.

Most sites are in countryside settings, often hidden, and on land that is zoned as agricultural ground.

Criminal Operations

Law enforcement report many are managed by organised crime gangs, who are making cash by charging much less than licensed companies to receive and landfill waste.

Firms have to pay disposal fees to use lawful landfill sites, depending on the amount and nature of material they are trying to get rid of, and a disposal levy is also levied at just over £126 per metric ton.

Community Frustration

Preparatory work to remove the Kidlington site started recently following fears over the risk of blaze and the impact that would have on the adjacent highway.

A commercial clean-up company has been awarded the contract to deal with the site over the following 12 months at a expense of £9.6m.

An compliance official for the government environment division said that the body would be looking to recover the clearance funds under confiscation legislation from any party ultimately convicted at the conclusion of its ongoing case.

She noted that these detentions would help "drive the inquiry forward" and enable the agency to "pursue more lines of inquiry to understand in detail what occurred and who was implicated".

"The unauthorized site at the site was an appalling and calculated assault on our ecology and we share the community's anger at this horrific act," she remarked.

A government minister praised the actions, commenting: "The unauthorized dumping of waste at the site is utterly appalling and has caused considerable harm to the natural world and anguish to the nearby residents.

"The administration is committed to eradicating this kind of crime across the country, by boosting funds to address environmental crime, hiring more staff and enacting tougher controls and penalties for those who break the law."

The arrests were carried out on the specified day by agents from a dedicated crime squad and follow an earlier apprehension of a 39-year-old from the Guildford area area in the autumn. He was set free awaiting more investigations.