Police Raid Homes Of Liam Payne’s ‘Friend’ And Hotel Workers In Investigation Into His Death
Liam Payne’s death in Argentina is still being investigated, with police recently raiding the homes of a ‘friend’ of the pop star and two hotel employees.
According to TMZ, the home raids took place on Tuesday night, and the hotel workers’ lockers at the Casa Sur Hotel in Palermo — where Payne died — were also searched.
Law enforcement sources claimed police officers have also been “reviewing security footage”, and believe these two hotel workers were in contact with Payne before he fell to his death.
TMZ’s sources went on to say that Payne’s ‘friend’ was identified through text messages on his mobile phone after police officers combed through it to see who had sold the One Direction singer drugs. However, when officers raided his home, the ‘friend’ was not present.
This comes after partial autopsy reports were acquired by ABC News showing the 31-year-old singer had a range of drugs in his system. Reportedly, one of these was “pink cocaine” — a recreational drug containing a mixture of substances like MDMA, crack, cocaine, ketamine, benzodiazepine and methamphetamine.
Since this development, Argentinian police have been investigating how Payne bought the drugs, with authorities alleging the two Casa Sur Hotel workers smuggled them into his room via a box of Dove soap.
A source, who claimed to be one of Payne’s close friends, alleged that one of these workers was a hotel cleaner.
Despite the drugs in Payne’s system, his cause of death was ruled to be due to the head injuries he received when falling from the third-storey balcony of his Buenos Aires hotel.
Payne’s body was kept in Argentina while the authorities carried out their investigation, but it was expected to be released this week for his upcoming funeral in Wolverhampton, UK.
Flowers and tributes for One Direction’s Liam Payne in Wolverhampton, England. (Image: Getty Images)
A source told The Mirror that Payne’s funeral will be “packed with A-listers” because “he was so well-loved in the showbiz community, and so many of them are so sad about his tragic death”.
“But there are going to be a series of song tributes from some very big acts as he loved singing and making music until the end.
Details about the private funeral have been kept under wraps, but fans have been leaving tributes in the form of flowers, balloons and photos in Wolverhampton.