Two men have been arrested as part of an probe into the illegal deposit of many thousands of tons of rubbish in a open field in Oxfordshire.
Authorities indicated that a 69-year-old was apprehended at a property in the town of Andover, while a 54-year-old was detained in Slough, Berkshire in association with the massive pile of rubbish dumped near Kidlington, Oxfordshire.
These arrests occur a week after a previous revelation which revealed the presence of more than 500 unauthorized tips in England, featuring at minimum 11 so-called "large-scale sites" bigger than 20,000 tons.
A spokeswoman for the environmental agency said that the apprehensions were for environment-related and money laundering offences and constituted a "vital step" in continuing investigations. The apprehended men have been released on pre-trial release.
The tipping ground in near Kidlington, located between the Cherwell River and the A34, is thought to hold approximately 21,000 tons of refuse in a pile which is up to 150m (490ft) long and 6m (20ft) tall.
This heap of waste is made up of what seems to be treated domestic rubbish, shredded plastic items, Styrofoam, automobile tires and other domestic objects.
It is just a single of 517 illegal sites across England, at least 11 of which contain in excess of 20,000 tonnes of waste. They encompass a 280,000-tonne site in Cheshire, two 50,000-tonne locations in Lancashire county and Cornwall and a 36,000-tonne tip in the county of Kent.
The overall figure of such bigger sites is expected to be higher, as the environmental body has earlier stated it does not hold information on tonnage for each illegal tip.
A large proportion of sites are in rural settings, typically out of sight, and on land that is zoned as farm property.
Authorities state numerous are operated by organized crime groups, who are making money by asking for far less than lawful operators to take and landfill rubbish.
Firms have to pay gate fees to use licensed landfill sites, depending on the quantity and category of waste they are trying to dispose of, and a waste tax is also applied at just over £126 per ton.
Preparatory efforts to remove the Kidlington dump started in recent weeks amid fears over the risk of blaze and the impact that would have on the adjacent major road.
A contracted clean-up contractor has been given the contract to handle the location over the coming 12 months period at a cost of £9.6m.
An investigations official for the government regulatory unit commented that the authority would be looking to claim back the clean-up funds under proceeds of crime laws from any individual ultimately convicted at the termination of its current case.
She further stated that this week's arrests would help "drive the probe forward" and enable authorities to "follow more avenues to ascertain in detail what happened and who was implicated".
"The unauthorized site at the site was an shocking and deliberate affront on our environment and officials understand the community's outrage at this egregious crime," she said.
A senior representative supported the detentions, commenting: "This illegal tipping of garbage at the site is disgraceful and has resulted in substantial harm to the ecology and anguish to the nearby community.
"Our authorities is committed to stamping out this kind of crime across the UK, by boosting funds to address environmental crime, employing more officers and introducing stricter checks and sanctions for those who violate the law."
The detentions were executed on a recent Thursday by officers from a regional organised crime unit and come after an previous apprehension of a man in his thirties from the Guildford area in November. He was let go pending more investigations.
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