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Two individuals have been detained as an element of an probe into the tipping of many thousands of tonnes of waste in a rural field in Oxfordshire, England.

Authorities indicated that a man in his late sixties was apprehended at a property in Hampshire's Andover, while a 54-year-old was arrested in the town of Slough in relation with the enormous mound of garbage dumped near Kidlington.

These arrests occur a week after a previous investigation which exposed the presence of over 500 unauthorized sites across England, including at minimum 11 so-called "major sites" greater than 20,000 tonnes.

A spokeswoman for the regulatory agency said that the apprehensions were for environment-related and financial violations and constituted a "vital step" in ongoing inquiries. Both 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 thought to hold around 21,000 tonnes of refuse in a pile which is up to 150m (490ft) in length and 6m (20ft) high.

This mound of garbage is composed of what appears to be processed residential waste, chopped up plastic items, polystyrene, tires and various household objects.

It is just one example of 517 unauthorized dumps across England, at minimum 11 of which contain over 20,000 tonnes of waste. They feature a 280,000-tonne site in the county of Cheshire, two 50,000-tonne areas in Lancashire and Cornwall and a 36,000-tonne tip in Kent.

The overall number of such bigger sites is likely to be larger, as the environmental agency has previously indicated it does not hold data on volume for all illegal site.

Most such locations are in agricultural areas, typically out of sight, and on land that is intended to be arable property.

Criminal Activity

Authorities report numerous are run by criminal organizations, who are earning cash by demanding much less than licensed firms to receive and dispose of rubbish.

Companies have to pay gate fees to use lawful landfill sites, depending on the amount and type of material they are trying to dispose of, and a waste tax is also charged at just over £126 per metric ton.

Community Anger

Preparation operations to remove the Kidlington location began earlier this month amid worries over the risk of blaze and the consequences that would have on the adjacent A-road.

A contracted waste clearance contractor has been awarded the task to handle the location over the coming 12 months at a expense of £9.6m.

An compliance manager for the government environment division stated that the body would be seeking to recoup the remediation funds under confiscation acts from anyone ultimately found guilty at the conclusion of its ongoing inquiry.

She noted that this week's detentions would help "push the probe forward" and allow officials to "follow more avenues to determine in detail what occurred and who was implicated".

"This unauthorized site at this location was an shocking and calculated assault on our natural surroundings and officials empathize with the community's anger at this egregious offence," she said.

A government official welcomed the arrests, adding: "The illegal dumping of garbage at this location is disgraceful and has resulted in substantial harm to the ecology and anguish to the local residents.

"The government is dedicated to eliminating this category of crime throughout the UK, by boosting resources to tackle environmental crime, employing more officers and introducing more severe controls and penalties for those who break the regulations."

The detentions were carried out on the specified day by personnel from a regional crime unit and follow an earlier arrest of a man in his thirties from the Surrey area in the autumn. He was let go awaiting further enquiries.