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Two men have been taken into custody as a component of an inquiry into the tipping of several thousand of tonnes of rubbish in a field in Oxfordshire, England.

Officials stated that a 69-year-old was apprehended at a dwelling in Hampshire's Andover, while a 54-year-old was arrested in the town of Slough in relation with the enormous pile of waste dumped near Kidlington, Oxfordshire.

These apprehensions occur a week after a previous revelation which uncovered the existence of in excess of 500 unlawful tips in the country of England, including at minimum 11 so-called "super sites" greater than 20,000 tonnes.

A representative for the regulatory body commented that the detentions were for environment-related and proceeds of crime crimes and were a "crucial step" in ongoing inquiries. The apprehended men have been released on pre-trial release.

Magnitude of the Issue

The illegal site in near Kidlington, located between the Cherwell River and the A34 road, is estimated to house around 21,000 tons of rubbish in a mound which is up to 150m (490ft) lengthwise and 6m (20ft) in height.

This mound of waste is made up of what seems to be treated residential refuse, fragmented plastics, expanded polystyrene, tires and assorted domestic items.

It represents just a single of 517 unauthorized tips in the country, at minimum 11 of which are estimated to hold in excess of 20,000 tonnes of waste. Such sites feature a 280,000-tonne location in Cheshire, two 50,000-tonne sites in Lancashire and Cornwall county and a 36,000-tonne tip in the county of Kent.

The overall amount of such bigger dumps is expected to be higher, as the regulatory authority has in the past stated it does not hold records on tonnage for each unlawful tip.

The majority such locations are in rural areas, often hidden, and on land that is zoned as arable property.

Organised Enterprise

Law enforcement report many are managed by organised crime gangs, who are making cash by charging much less than lawful companies to accept and dispose of waste.

Firms have to pay site fees to use licensed disposal sites, contingent on the quantity and type of material they are trying to discard, and a waste tax is also charged at just over £126 per ton.

Community Frustration

Initial work to clean up the Kidlington dump started earlier this month due to worries over the threat of fire and the effect that would have on the close-by highway.

A contracted waste clearance firm has been awarded the task to deal with the location over the following 12 months at a price of £9.6m.

An compliance manager for the government environmental crime team said that the body would be aiming to recoup the clean-up costs under asset recovery acts from anyone found guilty at the end of its current investigation.

She added that the recent detentions would help "push the inquiry forward" and enable the agency to "follow more lines of inquiry to understand precisely what happened and who was a party to it".

"This unauthorized dump at this location was an appalling and intentional affront on our ecology and the authorities share the community's frustration at this terrible crime," she remarked.

A senior representative supported the arrests, stating: "The illegal deposit of garbage at the site is appalling and has resulted in substantial harm to the ecology and upset to the local community.

"Our administration is dedicated to stamping out this kind of criminality across the nation, by augmenting financing to tackle illegal dumping, employing more staff and enacting stricter checks and penalties for those who break the regulations."

The apprehensions were carried out on Thursday by personnel from a regional crime unit and follow an earlier detention of a man in his thirties from the Guildford area region in last November. He was released pending additional investigations.