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Two men have been arrested as part of an probe into the illegal deposit of many thousands of tons of rubbish in a rural field in Oxfordshire.

Authorities reported that a man in his late sixties was detained at a residence in Hampshire's Andover, while a 54-year-old was taken into custody in Slough in connection with the enormous heap of waste dumped near the area of Kidlington.

These arrests come after a prior revelation which revealed the existence of more than 500 unauthorized dumps throughout the country of England, featuring at a minimum of 11 so-called "major sites" bigger than 20,000 tonnes.

A spokeswoman for the regulatory agency said that the arrests were for environmental and proceeds of crime violations and represented a "vital step" in continuing probes. The two individuals have been released on pre-trial release.

Scale of the Issue

The dump in the Kidlington area, located between the river Cherwell and the A34 highway, is thought to house around 21,000 metric tons of rubbish in a pile which is up to 150m (490ft) in length and 6m (20ft) in height.

This heap of waste is composed of what seems to be sorted residential rubbish, shredded plastic materials, polystyrene, automobile tires and other domestic objects.

It is just a single of 517 unauthorized tips throughout the country, at minimum 11 of which hold over 20,000 tons of rubbish. Such sites encompass a 280,000-tonne location in Cheshire, two 50,000-tonne locations in Lancashire county and Cornwall and a 36,000-tonne dump in Kent.

The total figure of such major sites is likely to be greater, as the environmental agency has previously stated it does not hold records on weight for all illegal site.

A large proportion of such locations are in rural locations, typically concealed, and on land that should be arable ground.

Organised Enterprise

Law enforcement say numerous are run by organized crime groups, who are generating money by charging much less than lawful companies to accept and bury rubbish.

Companies have to incur gate fees to use legitimate waste facilities, contingent on the quantity and nature of refuse they are trying to get rid of, and a disposal levy is also applied at just over £126 per tonne.

Local Frustration

Preparation efforts to clear the Kidlington site commenced in recent weeks following concerns over the potential of fire and the effect that would have on the close-by A-road.

A private waste removal contractor has been given the job to remediate the location over the coming 12 months at a price of £9.6m.

An enforcement officer for the government environment unit stated that the agency would be looking to recover the remediation expenses under proceeds of crime acts from any party ultimately found guilty at the conclusion of its current case.

She noted that this week's detentions would help "drive the investigation forward" and permit authorities to "investigate more leads to understand exactly what occurred and who was a party to it".

"The unauthorized dump at this location was an appalling and deliberate assault on our ecology and officials empathize with the community's anger at this terrible crime," she said.

A government representative supported the detentions, commenting: "The illegal tipping of waste at the site is disgraceful and has resulted in considerable harm to the ecology and anguish to the surrounding community.

"Our authorities is committed to stamping out this type of criminality throughout the nation, by increasing financing to address waste crime, employing more officers and implementing more severe checks and penalties for those who flout the regulations."

The arrests were carried out on a recent Thursday by personnel from a specialist serious crime unit and are in addition to an previous apprehension of a man in his thirties from the Guildford region in November. He was set free subject to additional enquiries.