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Two men have been arrested as part of an investigation into the dumping of many thousands of metric tons of waste in a open field in Oxfordshire, England.

Officials reported that a 69-year-old was apprehended at a property in Hampshire's Andover, while a man in his fifties was taken into custody in Slough, Berkshire in relation with the enormous heap of rubbish deposited near Kidlington, Oxfordshire.

These detentions come after a prior report which revealed the presence of in excess of 500 illegal tips in England, featuring at a minimum of 11 so-called "large-scale sites" greater than 20,000 metric tons.

A representative for the regulatory authorities stated that the arrests were for environment-related and financial violations and constituted a "key step" in ongoing investigations. Both men have been set free on pre-trial release.

Scale of the Situation

The illegal site in the Kidlington area, situated between the river Cherwell and the A34, is estimated to hold about 21,000 tonnes of waste in a heap which is up to 150m (490ft) lengthwise and 6m (20ft) in height.

This mound of garbage is made up of what looks to be processed residential waste, fragmented plastics, expanded polystyrene, automobile tires and assorted everyday articles.

It represents just a single of 517 unauthorized tips in England, at minimum 11 of which hold over 20,000 metric tons of waste. These include a 280,000-tonne area in Cheshire, two 50,000-tonne sites in Lancashire and Cornwall and a 36,000-tonne site in Kent.

The actual number of such bigger locations is probably to be greater, as the environment authority has earlier stated it does not maintain data on weight for each unlawful tip.

Most these sites are in countryside settings, frequently concealed, and on land that should be farm ground.

Criminal Activity

Police state numerous are operated by organized crime groups, who are making money by demanding much less than licensed firms to accept and bury waste.

Businesses have to incur site fees to use legitimate disposal sites, depending on the quantity and nature of material they are trying to discard, and a disposal levy is also applied at just over £126 per metric ton.

Local Outrage

Initial efforts to clear the Kidlington area site commenced in recent weeks due to fears over the potential of combustion and the effect that would have on the nearby highway.

A commercial waste clearance firm has been granted the job to deal with the location over the following 12 months period at a price of £9.6m.

An investigations manager for the country's environmental crime unit said that the authority would be looking to recoup the clearance expenses under proceeds of crime laws from any party convicted at the termination of its ongoing investigation.

She added that this week's apprehensions would help "move the inquiry forward" and permit the agency to "investigate more leads to ascertain in detail what transpired and who was a party to it".

"This unlawful site at Kidlington was an appalling and deliberate attack on our environment and the authorities understand the local anger at this egregious crime," she stated.

A government official welcomed the arrests, commenting: "The illegal tipping of waste at Kidlington is disgraceful and has resulted in considerable detriment to the natural world and anguish to the surrounding population.

"Our administration is dedicated to eliminating this type of criminality in the nation, by augmenting resources to address environmental crime, employing more officers and enacting more severe controls and penalties for those who violate the regulations."

The detentions were made on Thursday by personnel from a specialist serious crime unit and come after an prior arrest of a 39-year-old from the Guildford area in last November. He was set free pending more inquiries.