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Two men have been detained as a component of an investigation into the tipping of several thousand of tonnes of waste in a open field in Oxfordshire.

Officials stated that a 69-year-old was arrested at a dwelling in Hampshire's Andover, while a 54-year-old was arrested in Slough in relation with the massive pile of rubbish tipped near the area of Kidlington.

These detentions come after a recent investigation which uncovered the operation of more than 500 illegal dumps in England, including at minimum 11 so-called "major sites" bigger than 20,000 metric tons.

A representative for the regulatory body stated that the apprehensions were for ecological and proceeds of crime violations and represented a "vital step" in continuing probes. Both men have been released on conditional release.

Size of the Issue

The dump in Kidlington, positioned between the river Cherwell and the A34 road, is thought to hold about 21,000 tons of refuse in a mound which is up to 150m (490ft) long and 6m (20ft) tall.

This pile of waste is composed of what looks to be processed household waste, shredded plastic items, expanded polystyrene, tyres and other domestic articles.

It represents just a single of 517 unauthorized tips throughout England, at minimum 11 of which hold more than 20,000 tonnes of waste. These feature a 280,000-tonne site in Cheshire, two 50,000-tonne locations in Lancashire county and Cornwall county and a 36,000-tonne site in Kent.

The overall figure of such bigger locations is probably to be larger, as the regulatory agency has in the past acknowledged it does not maintain data on weight for each unauthorized dump.

The majority sites are in agricultural settings, frequently hidden, and on land that is intended to be arable ground.

Organised Enterprise

Police report many are operated by criminal organizations, who are earning profit by demanding much less than legitimate firms to take and dispose of garbage.

Businesses have to incur disposal fees to use lawful waste facilities, depending on the volume and type of material they are trying to get rid of, and a disposal levy is also applied at just over £126 per ton.

Public Frustration

Preparatory work to clear the Kidlington area location commenced earlier this month due to fears over the potential of combustion and the impact that would have on the close-by highway.

A commercial waste removal firm has been awarded the contract to handle the area over the following 12 months at a cost of £9.6m.

An enforcement officer for the national environment unit commented that the body would be aiming to recoup the clean-up expenses under proceeds of crime acts from any party ultimately found guilty at the end of its ongoing inquiry.

She noted that this week's arrests would help "move the inquiry forward" and enable the agency to "investigate more lines of inquiry to ascertain precisely what happened and who was involved".

"The unauthorized tip at the site was an atrocious and calculated attack on our environment and officials share the public's anger at this egregious offence," she stated.

A senior representative welcomed the actions, adding: "The unlawful deposit of rubbish at Kidlington is disgraceful and has caused significant detriment to the environment and anguish to the local residents.

"Our government is pledged to stamping out this kind of illegal activity in the country, by increasing resources to tackle environmental crime, hiring more personnel and introducing more severe controls and fines for those who break the regulations."

The arrests were executed on the specified day by agents from a dedicated serious crime team and come after an prior apprehension of a man in his thirties from the Guildford area in the autumn. He was released pending more investigations.