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Two men have been taken into custody as part of an inquiry into the illegal deposit of many thousands of tons of rubbish in a rural field in Oxfordshire, England.

Authorities indicated that a man in his late sixties was apprehended at a residence in the town of Andover, while a man in his fifties was taken into custody in Slough in connection with the enormous mound of garbage dumped near Kidlington, Oxfordshire.

These detentions come after a recent revelation which exposed the operation of more than 500 unauthorized dumps across England, featuring at least 11 so-called "large-scale sites" bigger than 20,000 metric tons.

A spokeswoman for the environment body stated that the arrests were for environment-related and money laundering crimes and were a "key step" in ongoing investigations. The two individuals have been let go on bail.

Magnitude of the Situation

The illegal site in near Kidlington, situated between the river Cherwell and the A34 road, is estimated to house approximately 21,000 tons of refuse in a pile which is up to 150m (490ft) in length and 6m (20ft) in height.

This heap of garbage is consists of what appears to be processed household rubbish, fragmented plastics, expanded polystyrene, tires and assorted domestic articles.

It represents just one of 517 illegal sites in England, at a minimum of 11 of which contain in excess of 20,000 tonnes of rubbish. These feature a 280,000-tonne area in Cheshire, two 50,000-tonne sites in Lancashire and Cornwall county and a 36,000-tonne dump in Kent.

The overall figure of such bigger sites is expected to be larger, as the environment authority has earlier stated it does not possess data on weight for all illegal dump.

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

Organized Activity

Police say numerous are operated by organized crime groups, who are generating money by demanding much less than lawful firms to receive and bury waste.

Companies have to pay site fees to use legitimate landfill sites, contingent on the volume and category of refuse they are trying to dispose of, and landfill tax is also levied at just over £126 per metric ton.

Public Outrage

Preparation efforts to remove the Kidlington area dump began earlier this month amid concerns over the potential of combustion and the effect that would have on the close-by major road.

A private waste removal contractor has been awarded the job to handle the location over the following 12 months at a cost of £9.6m.

An enforcement officer for the national regulatory unit said that the agency would be seeking to claim back the clearance funds under asset recovery acts from any individual ultimately found guilty at the conclusion of its current case.

She noted that the recent arrests would help "drive the inquiry forward" and allow officials to "pursue more lines of inquiry to ascertain precisely what occurred and who was implicated".

"The unauthorized dump at this location was an appalling and intentional attack on our natural surroundings and we understand the community's outrage at this horrific crime," she remarked.

A government official welcomed the arrests, stating: "This unlawful deposit of waste at Kidlington is appalling and has resulted in considerable harm to the natural world and upset to the local residents.

"Our government is committed to stamping out this kind of criminality throughout the country, by increasing funds to tackle illegal dumping, recruiting more personnel and introducing stricter controls and penalties for those who flout the rules."

The detentions were executed on Thursday by personnel from a specialist crime unit and are in addition to an prior arrest of a 39-year-old from the Guildford area in the autumn. He was set free subject to additional inquiries.