Police investigating the Whitbourne ‘drug farm’ shooting have discovered a new cannabis factory at a Worcestershire industrial estate.

Police raided a building at Hartlebury Trading Estate last Friday evening and found a “well organised” drug operation with a number of cannabis plants inside.

Officers made the discovery the day after a cannabis farm was found at the scene of a shooting in Whitbourne.

Police have been unable to confirm or deny whether or not the two operations are linked.

Three people appeared in court on Monday charged with producing a class B controlled drug.

A West Mercia Police spokesman said no arrests have been made in connection with the operation in Hartlebury.

He said: “West Mercia Police discovered a cannabis cultivation set up at Hartlebury Trading Estate on Friday.

“It was a well organised operation and has now been dismantled and the cannabis seized.

“Inquiries continue into who was responsible for this illegal operation.

“Meanwhile, there are currently three people facing charges in relation to the Whitbourne/Leigh Sinton case, so we cannot comment further on the investigation at this time.”

The unit in Beech Drive is just yards away from the site office at the 200-acre industrial estate, just off the A449 in Hartlebury.

There are a number of scrap cars, motorbikes and other metals outside the building, which looks from the outside like a scrap metal dealer’s workshop. Three doors near to the rear of the unit have been boarded up where police officers gained entry.

All of the plants and paraphernalia have been seized.

Estate manager Ian Dunn said he had no idea about the cannabis operation and was surprised to hear about the raid.

He said: “I didn’t know anything about the raid, the police haven’t told me anything about it.

“Our security didn’t even know about it. The unit is still boarded up, we haven’t been in there yet.

“We really don’t know anything about it at all.”

A member of staff working at one of the nearby units, who didn’t want to be named, said: “I saw a few police cars buzzing around on Friday but didn’t know what was going on.

"It is the last place where you would expect something like this to happen because there is 24/7 security.”

• Josephine Merrick, aged 57, of Brook Farm, Leigh Sinton, and her partner Malcolm White, 62, have both been charged with producing a class B controlled drug.

Merrick was released on bail to appear in court next month.

White was also charged with possessing a firearm without certificate. He was remanded in custody until next week.

Darren Randall, 24, of Yardley Fields Road, Birmingham, was charged with attempted aggravated burglary of a home in Whitbourne, three counts of possessing ammunition without a firearm without a certificate, possession of a firearm when prohibited to do so for five years and production of a class B controlled drug.

He was remanded in custody to appear before Worcester Crown Court in January.

Another man in his 20s, was arrested last Thursday in the West Midlands area on suspicion of burglary has been released on police bail.