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A pair of individuals have been taken into custody as an element of an inquiry into the illegal deposit of several thousand of metric tons of rubbish in a rural field in Oxfordshire, England.

Officials reported that a 69-year-old was detained at a dwelling in Hampshire's Andover, while a man in his fifties was taken into custody in the town of Slough in relation with the massive pile of waste dumped near Kidlington, Oxfordshire.

These detentions follow a previous report which uncovered the existence of over 500 unauthorized sites in England, featuring at minimum 11 so-called "large-scale sites" larger than 20,000 tonnes.

A official for the regulatory authorities stated that the detentions were for environmental and money laundering offences and represented a "key step" in active probes. The apprehended men have been set free on pre-trial release.

Size of the Issue

The dump in Kidlington, situated between the river Cherwell and the A34 highway, is thought to hold around 21,000 tons of waste in a mound which is up to 150m (490ft) long and 6m (20ft) high.

This heap of waste is consists of what appears to be sorted residential refuse, shredded plastic items, polystyrene, tires and various everyday articles.

It is just a single of 517 illegal dumps across the country, at minimum 11 of which hold over 20,000 tons of waste. They feature a 280,000-tonne site in Cheshire, two 50,000-tonne locations in Lancashire and Cornwall and a 36,000-tonne dump in Kent.

The actual amount of such major locations is likely to be higher, as the regulatory authority has earlier stated it does not hold data on weight for all illegal site.

A large proportion of these sites are in rural settings, often hidden, and on land that is zoned as farm ground.

Organized Operations

Law enforcement report many are operated by organized crime groups, who are earning money by charging significantly less than licensed operators to accept and bury rubbish.

Companies have to incur site fees to use licensed disposal sites, based on the volume and type of refuse they are trying to get rid of, and a disposal levy is also applied at just over £126 per ton.

Local Outrage

Preparatory efforts to clean up the affected location began in recent weeks following concerns over the potential of combustion and the consequences that would have on the close-by A-road.

A contracted waste removal contractor has been awarded the task to remediate the site over the following 12 months period at a expense of £9.6m.

An compliance official for the country's environmental crime unit commented that the body would be aiming to claim back the clean-up expenses under proceeds of crime acts from any party convicted at the termination of its active inquiry.

She noted that these apprehensions would help "drive the inquiry forward" and allow authorities to "follow more lines of inquiry to determine precisely what transpired and who was implicated".

"This unauthorized dump at Kidlington was an atrocious and deliberate attack on our natural surroundings and we understand the local frustration at this horrific offence," she stated.

A government minister supported the arrests, commenting: "This unauthorized dumping of garbage at the site is appalling and has resulted in considerable detriment to the natural world and upset to the local population.

"The government is dedicated to eliminating this type of crime in the UK, by augmenting resources to combat environmental crime, employing more officers and implementing more severe checks and sanctions for those who break the rules."

The apprehensions were executed on Thursday by agents from a specialist serious crime team and are in addition to an previous arrest of a 39-year-old from the Guildford area region in last November. He was set free subject to additional enquiries.