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Two men have been taken into custody as part of an probe into the tipping of thousands of tonnes of rubbish in a field in Oxfordshire.

Law enforcement stated that a 69-year-old was arrested at a property in the town of Andover, while a 54-year-old was arrested in Slough, Berkshire in association with the enormous mound of rubbish deposited near Kidlington.

These arrests follow a previous revelation which uncovered the existence of over 500 unauthorized tips throughout England, encompassing at minimum 11 so-called "large-scale sites" greater than 20,000 tons.

A representative for the environmental authorities stated that the apprehensions were for environmental and proceeds of crime violations and were a "key step" in ongoing investigations. Both men have been released on conditional release.

Size of the Issue

The illegal site in near Kidlington, situated between the River Cherwell and the A34 road, is believed to house around 21,000 tons of waste in a heap which is up to 150m (490ft) long and 6m (20ft) in height.

This mound of garbage is composed of what looks to be sorted domestic refuse, chopped up plastic items, Styrofoam, automobile tires and various domestic items.

It represents just one example of 517 unlawful tips in England, at a minimum of 11 of which contain over 20,000 metric tons of waste. Such sites include a 280,000-tonne site in the county of Cheshire, two 50,000-tonne locations in Lancashire and Cornwall county and a 36,000-tonne tip in Kent.

The actual number of such larger locations is expected to be higher, as the environment authority has previously acknowledged it does not maintain information on tonnage for every illegal site.

A large proportion of sites are in agricultural areas, often out of sight, and on land that is zoned as agricultural land.

Organized Enterprise

Authorities report many are operated by organized crime groups, who are making cash by demanding significantly less than legitimate operators to accept and dispose of garbage.

Firms have to incur disposal fees to use licensed waste facilities, based on the amount and type of material they are trying to get rid of, and a disposal levy is also applied at just over £126 per tonne.

Local Frustration

Initial work to remove the Kidlington dump began recently due to fears over the threat of blaze and the consequences that would have on the close-by highway.

A private clean-up firm has been granted the contract to deal with the area over the coming 12 months at a expense of £9.6m.

An compliance manager for the country's regulatory unit said that the agency would be seeking to recoup the remediation expenses under asset recovery legislation from any party ultimately convicted at the termination of its current case.

She added that these arrests would help "push the inquiry forward" and enable officials to "follow more avenues to understand precisely what occurred and who was a party to it".

"This unauthorized site at this location was an appalling and deliberate assault on our natural surroundings and we understand the public's frustration at this horrific offence," she said.

A government minister supported the actions, stating: "This unauthorized deposit of rubbish at the site is appalling and has caused substantial harm to the environment and anguish to the nearby population.

"Our authorities is pledged to eliminating this type of criminality across the UK, by increasing resources to combat environmental crime, hiring more personnel and implementing tougher controls and sanctions for those who break the law."

The arrests were made on a recent Thursday by personnel from a dedicated organised crime team and follow an earlier apprehension of a man in his thirties from the Guildford area in last November. He was let go subject to further investigations.