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A pair of individuals have been detained as part of an investigation into the illegal deposit of thousands of tons of rubbish in a rural field in the county of Oxfordshire.

Officials reported that a man in his late sixties was apprehended at a dwelling in Andover, Hampshire, while a 54-year-old was taken into custody in Slough in relation with the enormous heap of waste tipped near Kidlington.

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

A spokeswoman for the regulatory agency stated that the detentions were for environment-related and money laundering offences and constituted a "key step" in ongoing investigations. The two individuals have been let go on conditional release.

Size of the Problem

The tipping ground in near Kidlington, positioned between the Cherwell River and the A34 highway, is estimated to hold approximately 21,000 tons of refuse in a pile which is up to 150m (490ft) in length and 6m (20ft) high.

This heap of rubbish is consists of what appears to be sorted residential rubbish, fragmented plastic materials, polystyrene, tyres and various household objects.

It is just one of 517 illegal tips in the country, at minimum 11 of which contain over 20,000 tonnes of garbage. They feature a 280,000-tonne location in Cheshire, two 50,000-tonne locations in Lancashire and Cornwall county and a 36,000-tonne dump in the county of Kent.

The overall number of such major dumps is likely to be larger, as the regulatory agency has previously indicated it does not maintain data on volume for each illegal tip.

A large proportion of sites are in countryside settings, often hidden, and on land that is intended to be arable ground.

Criminal Enterprise

Law enforcement state many are run by criminal organizations, who are generating profit by demanding much less than legitimate operators to receive and landfill rubbish.

Companies have to pay gate fees to use lawful disposal sites, depending on the volume and nature of material they are trying to dispose of, and a waste tax is also applied at just over £126 per metric ton.

Local Outrage

Preparatory work to clear the affected site began in recent weeks due to worries over the risk of combustion and the impact that would have on the nearby highway.

A private waste clearance company has been granted the contract to handle the area over the following 12 months period at a price of £9.6m.

An enforcement manager for the government environmental crime unit said that the authority would be looking to claim back the clearance expenses under asset recovery acts from anyone ultimately convicted at the conclusion of its current inquiry.

She further stated that this week's arrests would help "push the probe forward" and enable authorities to "investigate more avenues to determine in detail what transpired and who was implicated".

"This illegal dump at this location was an atrocious and deliberate assault on our ecology and officials understand the public's anger at this egregious crime," she said.

A senior official supported the actions, commenting: "The illegal dumping of rubbish at this location is utterly appalling and has led to considerable detriment to the ecology and distress to the nearby residents.

"The administration is pledged to eliminating this kind of crime across the nation, by boosting financing to address waste crime, hiring more officers and introducing tougher measures and sanctions for those who violate the regulations."

The apprehensions were carried out on the specified day by officers from a dedicated serious crime team and come after an earlier apprehension of a 39-year-old from the Surrey area in last November. He was released awaiting more inquiries.