Gardaí are to be drafted in to work with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to investigate multi-million euro illegal waste dumping activities from the State into Northern Ireland.
The Criminal Assets Bureau is also expected to be asked to target the assets of those suspected or convicted of illegal dumping. Illegal operators are earning millions by avoiding the high landfill charges in the Republic.
The new investigation will be the largest into illegal dumping since inquiries began into dumps at four different sites in west Wicklow two years ago. That investigation is almost complete.
The EPA's new Office for Environmental Enforcement (OEE) will work with gardaí from the National Bureau of Criminal Investigation (NBCI) on the growing illegal waste dumping problem, The Irish Times has learned.
The investigation is to be carried out in conjunction with staff from Northern Ireland's Environment and Heritage Service (EHS).
The cross-Border investigation is at an early stage, but surveillance operations have already been mounted by the EPA and the EHS in recent weeks.
The NBCI has been briefed informally, and is expected to become more involved as the investigation progresses.
The Minister for the Environment at the Northern Ireland Office, Ms Angela Smith, is to meet the Minister for the Environment, Mr Cullen, to discuss her growing concern about the illegal waste activity which has seen thousands of tonnes of waste from the Republic dumped in over 20 sites in the North.
As part of its planned clampdown, the OEE is to review how local authorities grant waste collection permits, amid growing evidence that the system is not being properly enforced in some areas
The Irish Times has established that a small number of hauliers based along the Border are suspected of being behind the bulk of the illegal dumping, and are collecting waste from licensed operations in the Republic. A number have criminal records, and have had loose links with paramilitary groups in the past.
It has also emerged that at least three of the hauliers suspected of illegal dumping have been granted waste collection permits in the Connacht and Dublin regions.
One was granted based on false information provided to Dublin local authorities. Monaghan County Council, which has impounded a number of trucks belonging to the hauliers, is seeking details from the Connacht and Dublin regions as to what checks were carried out before the permits were issued.
The Irish Times has also established that some of the waste found recently at an illegal dump near Clones in Co Monaghan is suspected to have come from two waste collectors in the Munster region who have already been convicted of illegal dumping, but who were able to continue operating.
Dr Matthew Crowe, programme manager of the OEE, also told The Irish Times that the office had prioritised illegal waste activity. The office was established last October as part of a new effort to ensure a better enforcement of environmental legislation.
He said the OEE was "working very closely with the NBCI in pursuing illegal waste movements" to Northern Ireland. The office was in the process of establishing an enforcement network he said, to provide local authorities with aid to better police waste activities in their areas.
It comes as a senior figure in Ireland's waste disposal industry claimed that over 10 per cent of domestic, commercial and industrial waste was being disposed of in some illegal form.
Mr Steve Cowman, chief executive of Greenstar, one of the country's largest waste management firms, said illegal dumping accounted for between 500,000 and 750,000 tonnes of waste per anum.
Those convicted of illegal dumping face jail terms of up to 10 years, and or fines of up to €15 million.