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Two men have been arrested as part of an inquiry into the dumping of many thousands of metric tons of rubbish in a rural field in the county of Oxfordshire.

Officials indicated that a 69-year-old was detained at a dwelling in Andover, Hampshire, while a 54-year-old was taken into custody in the town of Slough in association with the huge pile of garbage tipped near Kidlington, Oxfordshire.

These arrests occur a week after a prior investigation which revealed the operation of over 500 unauthorized sites throughout England, including at minimum 11 so-called "super sites" bigger than 20,000 tons.

A spokeswoman for the regulatory authorities commented that the detentions were for environment-related and money laundering violations and constituted a "key step" in continuing probes. Both men have been let go on bail.

Scale of the Issue

The tipping ground in the Kidlington area, situated between the River Cherwell and the A34 highway, is believed to house around 21,000 metric tons of refuse in a pile which is up to 150m (490ft) in length and 6m (20ft) tall.

This mound of waste is consists of what looks to be sorted household rubbish, chopped up plastic items, polystyrene, tires and other everyday items.

It is just one example of 517 unlawful dumps throughout the country, at least 11 of which are estimated to hold over 20,000 tonnes of garbage. These encompass a 280,000-tonne location in Cheshire, two 50,000-tonne areas in Lancashire and Cornwall and a 36,000-tonne tip in Kent.

The overall number of such major locations is likely to be larger, as the environmental body has previously stated it does not possess data on weight for all unauthorized dump.

Most such locations are in agricultural settings, frequently hidden, and on land that is intended to be agricultural land.

Organised Enterprise

Authorities report numerous are run by criminal organizations, who are generating cash by charging far less than licensed companies to receive and bury rubbish.

Companies have to incur disposal fees to use licensed landfill sites, contingent on the quantity and type of waste they are trying to discard, and a waste tax is also levied at just over £126 per ton.

Public Outrage

Initial work to clean up the affected location began earlier this month due to fears over the potential of fire and the effect that would have on the adjacent major road.

A commercial waste removal company has been given the contract to handle the site over the next 12 months period at a price of £9.6m.

An enforcement official for the country's regulatory team said that the body would be looking to recover the clean-up funds under asset recovery legislation from anyone successfully found guilty at the termination of its current inquiry.

She added that the recent apprehensions would help "move the investigation forward" and permit the agency to "follow more avenues to understand precisely what transpired and who was implicated".

"This illegal dump at Kidlington was an atrocious and deliberate assault on our natural surroundings and the authorities empathize with the community's frustration at this egregious crime," she remarked.

A government official praised the actions, adding: "This unauthorized dumping of waste at Kidlington is utterly appalling and has led to considerable harm to the ecology and anguish to the local residents.

"The authorities is dedicated to eliminating this type of criminality across the UK, by augmenting resources to address environmental crime, employing more officers and implementing stricter checks and sanctions for those who violate the law."

The arrests were made on the specified day by officers from a regional organised crime team and are in addition to an earlier arrest of a man in his thirties from the Guildford area region in November. He was set free pending additional inquiries.