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Two individuals have been arrested as part of an inquiry into the dumping of thousands of tons of refuse in a field in Oxfordshire, England.

Authorities stated that a 69-year-old was apprehended at a residence in the town of Andover, while a 54-year-old was arrested in Slough, Berkshire in relation with the huge heap of rubbish tipped near Kidlington, Oxfordshire.

These detentions come after a previous revelation which exposed the presence of in excess of 500 unauthorized sites throughout England, encompassing at minimum 11 so-called "major sites" bigger than 20,000 tonnes.

A spokeswoman for the environment body said that the arrests were for ecological and money laundering violations and constituted a "vital step" in active probes. The apprehended men have been released on pre-trial release.

Magnitude of the Issue

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

This pile of rubbish is consists of what appears to be sorted residential refuse, chopped up plastic materials, polystyrene, automobile tires and various household items.

It represents just one of 517 unlawful sites throughout the country, at least 11 of which hold more than 20,000 metric tons of waste. They feature a 280,000-tonne location in the county of Cheshire, two 50,000-tonne locations in Lancashire and Cornwall and a 36,000-tonne dump in the county of Kent.

The overall number of such bigger sites is probably to be higher, as the environmental authority has in the past indicated it does not maintain records on tonnage for every illegal tip.

Most these sites are in agricultural areas, frequently concealed, and on land that is intended to be farm land.

Organized Enterprise

Law enforcement say numerous are operated by organised crime gangs, who are earning profit by asking for significantly less than licensed firms to accept and landfill rubbish.

Businesses have to incur gate fees to use lawful disposal sites, based on the volume and category of waste they are trying to discard, and a disposal levy is also applied at just over £126 per metric ton.

Community Anger

Preparation work to clean up the affected site began in recent weeks amid fears over the threat of combustion and the impact that would have on the close-by A-road.

A commercial waste removal contractor has been given the task to handle the site over the following 12 months at a cost of £9.6m.

An enforcement manager for the country's regulatory unit commented that the agency would be seeking to recover the clearance expenses under proceeds of crime legislation from any individual ultimately found guilty at the conclusion of its current investigation.

She further stated that these apprehensions would help "drive the probe forward" and enable the agency to "pursue more avenues to understand in detail what transpired and who was a party to it".

"This unlawful site at this location was an shocking and calculated attack on our environment and the authorities understand the community's outrage at this egregious act," she said.

A senior representative supported the detentions, adding: "This unlawful dumping of waste at Kidlington is appalling and has caused substantial detriment to the environment and anguish to the surrounding population.

"Our administration is dedicated to eradicating this kind of illegal activity throughout the nation, by boosting resources to tackle illegal dumping, recruiting more officers and implementing stricter checks and fines for those who break the law."

The detentions were executed on Thursday by officers from a specialist crime unit and are in addition to an prior detention of a man in his thirties from the Guildford region in last November. He was set free subject to more enquiries.