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Two individuals have been arrested as an element of an inquiry into the dumping of several thousand of tonnes of waste in a rural field in Oxfordshire, England.

Law enforcement indicated that a 69-year-old was detained at a residence in the town of Andover, while a 54-year-old was taken into custody in the town of Slough in relation with the huge pile of rubbish tipped near Kidlington, Oxfordshire.

These arrests occur a week after a previous revelation which exposed the existence of more than 500 unauthorized dumps throughout England, encompassing at minimum 11 so-called "large-scale sites" larger than 20,000 metric tons.

A representative for the regulatory authorities stated that the arrests were for ecological and money laundering crimes and constituted a "crucial step" in active investigations. The two individuals have been released on conditional release.

Size of the Situation

The dump in Kidlington, positioned between the Cherwell River and the A34 highway, is believed to house around 21,000 metric tons of rubbish in a mound which is up to 150m (490ft) lengthwise and 6m (20ft) high.

This heap of waste is made up of what looks to be processed domestic refuse, fragmented plastic materials, polystyrene, automobile tires and various household articles.

It represents just one of 517 illegal dumps in the country, at a minimum of 11 of which are estimated to hold over 20,000 tons of waste. These encompass a 280,000-tonne area in the county of Cheshire, two 50,000-tonne locations in Lancashire and Cornwall and a 36,000-tonne dump in Kent.

The total number of such bigger dumps is expected to be higher, as the regulatory authority has in the past acknowledged it does not possess records on tonnage for every unauthorized site.

Most sites are in rural areas, frequently hidden, and on land that is intended to be agricultural property.

Organized Activity

Authorities say numerous are managed by organised crime gangs, who are making profit by demanding significantly less than legitimate firms to take and bury rubbish.

Companies have to incur site fees to use licensed disposal sites, based on the volume and category of refuse they are trying to get rid of, and a disposal levy is also applied at just over £126 per metric ton.

Community Outrage

Initial work to remove the Kidlington area location commenced in recent weeks amid worries over the threat of combustion and the consequences that would have on the close-by highway.

A contracted clean-up company has been given the contract to deal with the location over the following 12 months at a price of £9.6m.

An compliance manager for the country's environmental crime division said that the body would be seeking to recover the clean-up costs under asset recovery laws from any individual ultimately prosecuted at the termination of its current case.

She further stated that this week's arrests would help "push the investigation forward" and allow the agency to "investigate more lines of inquiry to determine in detail what occurred and who was involved".

"The illegal tip at the site was an atrocious and intentional affront on our environment and officials understand the community's anger at this horrific crime," she remarked.

A government minister praised the arrests, adding: "The unlawful deposit of garbage at the site is appalling and has resulted in significant damage to the ecology and upset to the surrounding community.

"The authorities is pledged to eradicating this category of crime in the nation, by boosting funds to tackle waste crime, recruiting more officers and implementing more severe controls and penalties for those who flout the regulations."

The apprehensions were made on a recent Thursday by personnel from a dedicated serious crime unit and are in addition to an earlier detention of a man in his thirties from the Surrey area in last November. He was let go subject to further enquiries.