Apprehensions Made in Link to Massive Unauthorized Rubbish Dump

A pair of individuals have been detained as part of an probe into the dumping of several thousand of tonnes of rubbish in a rural field in Oxfordshire, England.

Law enforcement reported that a man in his late sixties was arrested at a dwelling in the town of Andover, while a 54-year-old was taken into custody in Slough, Berkshire in association with the huge heap of garbage dumped near the area of Kidlington.

These arrests occur a week after a recent revelation which revealed the operation of over 500 illegal tips in England, including at a minimum of 11 so-called "super sites" greater than 20,000 tonnes.

A spokeswoman for the regulatory agency commented that the arrests were for environmental and money laundering violations and constituted a "vital step" in ongoing probes. Both men have been let go on pre-trial release.

Size of the Situation

The tipping ground in near Kidlington, located between the river Cherwell and the A34 road, is thought to house about 21,000 tonnes of rubbish in a pile which is up to 150m (490ft) in length and 6m (20ft) high.

This heap of garbage is consists of what appears to be sorted household rubbish, fragmented plastic items, expanded polystyrene, automobile tires and various household items.

It constitutes just one of 517 unlawful sites throughout the country, at a minimum of 11 of which contain in excess of 20,000 metric tons of garbage. Such sites feature a 280,000-tonne location in the county of Cheshire, two 50,000-tonne locations in Lancashire and Cornwall county and a 36,000-tonne dump in Kent.

The actual amount of such major locations is probably to be larger, as the environment authority has in the past acknowledged it does not maintain information on tonnage for every unlawful tip.

A large proportion of such locations are in rural locations, typically concealed, and on land that should be agricultural land.

Organized Enterprise

Police report many are run by organized crime groups, who are making cash by asking for significantly less than licensed firms to take and landfill rubbish.

Businesses have to incur site fees to use lawful disposal sites, depending on the volume and type of material they are trying to dispose of, and landfill tax is also charged at just over £126 per tonne.

Local Anger

Preparatory work to clear the affected location began in recent weeks due to concerns over the risk of fire and the impact that would have on the close-by major road.

A commercial waste removal firm has been granted the contract to handle the site over the coming 12 months at a price of £9.6m.

An enforcement manager for the government regulatory division said that the agency would be seeking to claim back the remediation costs under proceeds of crime acts from any party prosecuted at the termination of its active inquiry.

She further stated that the recent detentions would help "move the probe forward" and allow officials to "investigate more avenues to determine in detail what happened and who was a party to it".

"The unauthorized dump at this location was an atrocious and deliberate assault on our ecology and we share the community's anger at this terrible act," she stated.

A government representative praised the detentions, commenting: "This unlawful dumping of rubbish at Kidlington is disgraceful and has caused considerable damage to the natural world and distress to the surrounding community.

"The administration is committed to stamping out this kind of criminality throughout the UK, by increasing financing to address waste crime, recruiting more personnel and implementing more severe measures and fines for those who break the rules."

The arrests were executed on a recent Thursday by agents from a regional serious crime squad and follow an prior apprehension of a man in his thirties from the Guildford region in November. He was set free pending further investigations.