Two men have been arrested in connection to the illegal dumping of thousands of tonnes of rubbish in Oxfordshire.
Police officers working with the Environmental Agency (EA) arrested a 69-year-old in Andover and a 54-year-old in Slough on Thursday as part of an investigation into large-scale fly-tipping near Kidlington.
The men have been arrested on environmental and money laundering offences, the EA said.
Both men have since been released on conditional bail.
The arrests follow an investigation into the dumping of a mountain of waste on a site between the River Cherwell and the A34, a busy road running through Oxford and Birmingham.
Officers from the South East Regional Organised Crime Unit executed the warrants, working with police from the Thames Valley Police, Hampshire and Isle of Wight Constabulary and Surrey Police.
Emma Viner, enforcement and investigations manager in the EA’s national environmental crime unit, said: “The illegal dump at Kidlington was an atrocious and deliberate attack on our environment, and the Environment Agency shares the community’s anger at this horrific crime.
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“Our teams have been working tirelessly with the South East Regional Organised Crime Unit on this investigation. These joint efforts have resulted in further arrests, which are another vital step in collecting new evidence and progressing our investigation.”
The pile of rubbish was estimated to have been at least 60m long, 15m wide and 10m high.
Environment Secretary Emma Reynolds said the dumping was “appalling and has caused significant damage to the environment and distress to the local community”.
“I welcome these arrests – an important step in securing justice for local residents,” she said.
“The government is committed to stamping out this type of criminality across the country, by boosting funds to tackle waste crime, hiring more officers and introducing tougher checks and penalties for those who break the law.”
The cost of removing the waste was estimated to be more than the entire annual budget of the local council, which is around £25m.
The incident has sparked fears that toxins could leak into the River Cherwell and the wider Thames catchment.
A 39-year-old man was arrested in November in connection with the illegal waste dump.
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Fly-tipping has become an issue of increasing public concern, as criminal gangs seek to make a profit by presenting themselves as private refuse collectors while disposing of waste illegally.
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Sky News has reported on the growing problem of waste crime.
In October, the Lords Environment and Climate Change Committee warned that organised crime gangs are illegally dumping millions of tonnes of waste across the countryside every year.
