Nineteen people are appearing in court in Amsterdam this week, suspected of dumping millions of kilos of heavily polluted manure on Dutch and German agricultural land.

The 19 include livestock farmers, a manure trader, other traders and a biodiesel manufacturer, broadcaster NOS said. In total, eight days have been set aside for the hearings over a three week period.

The investigation into the fraud started in 2015 following a tip-off. The case centres on an international waste processing company which, the public prosecution department says, mixed heavily polluted waste with manure and then sold it to farmers.

In total, millions of kilos of waste, some contaminated with heavy metals, were disposed off in this way, earning the suspects €2m, the public prosecution department says.