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Two individuals have been arrested as a component of an probe into the dumping of several thousand of tonnes of refuse in a rural field in Oxfordshire, England.

Law enforcement 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 rubbish tipped near Kidlington.

These arrests follow a prior investigation which exposed the presence of more than 500 unauthorized sites throughout England, including at a minimum of 11 so-called "large-scale sites" greater than 20,000 metric tons.

A official for the environment agency stated that the arrests were for environmental and money laundering violations and constituted a "crucial step" in active probes. The two individuals have been set free on conditional release.

Scale of the Issue

The tipping ground in near Kidlington, located between the Cherwell River and the A34 highway, is believed to contain about 21,000 tons of rubbish in a mound which is up to 150m (490ft) in length and 6m (20ft) tall.

This heap of garbage is composed of what looks to be treated domestic rubbish, chopped up plastic items, Styrofoam, tyres and other household objects.

It represents just one of 517 unauthorized sites across the country, at minimum 11 of which are estimated to hold in excess of 20,000 metric tons of garbage. These include a 280,000-tonne location in Cheshire, two 50,000-tonne sites in Lancashire and Cornwall county and a 36,000-tonne dump in Kent.

The total number of such bigger dumps is expected to be higher, as the environment body has previously stated it does not maintain information on weight for all unauthorized dump.

A large proportion of these sites are in agricultural areas, typically concealed, and on land that should be agricultural ground.

Criminal Operations

Law enforcement say many are run by organized crime groups, who are earning profit by charging far less than licensed firms to receive and dispose of garbage.

Firms have to be liable for disposal fees to use licensed landfill sites, contingent on the quantity and nature of refuse they are trying to discard, and a disposal levy is also applied at just over £126 per tonne.

Local Frustration

Initial efforts to clear the Kidlington area site started in recent weeks amid worries over the potential of combustion and the consequences that would have on the close-by major road.

A commercial clean-up firm has been granted the contract to remediate the location over the coming 12 months period at a cost of £9.6m.

An enforcement manager for the government regulatory division said that the agency would be aiming to recoup the remediation expenses under confiscation acts from anyone successfully found guilty at the termination of its active investigation.

She noted that these apprehensions would help "drive the probe forward" and enable authorities to "follow more leads to understand in detail what transpired and who was involved".

"The illegal site at Kidlington was an atrocious and calculated attack on our ecology and we empathize with the public's outrage at this terrible offence," she stated.

A senior official praised the arrests, commenting: "This illegal deposit of garbage at the site is utterly appalling and has resulted in significant harm to the environment and upset to the nearby residents.

"The authorities is pledged to eradicating this kind of criminality across the country, by increasing resources to tackle environmental crime, employing more officers and enacting more severe measures and penalties for those who violate the regulations."

The apprehensions were carried out on the specified day by personnel from a dedicated serious crime team and follow an earlier arrest of a man in his thirties from the Guildford area region in the autumn. He was let go subject to further investigations.