Liam Payne’s hotel raided by Buenos Aires authorities amid reports singer got drugs from employees
Buenos Aires police raided CasaSur Palermo Hotel where Liam Payne fell to his death a week ago.
“Personnel from the Special Investigations Division and the Special Technological Investigations Division were deployed [Wednesday] afternoon to the CasaSur Hotel in Palermo where the singer Liam Payne lost his life last week to carry out a raid […] to obtain elements of interest for the investigation,” a police source told Argentinian newspaper LA NACION Thursday morning.
Per a second source, these elements of interest included “documents and videos” from the lobby and courtyard to continue piecing together the singer’s last moments before his death.
They have also acquired the hotel’s computers, phones and other devices.
Another insider told Us Weekly that the main purpose of the raid was to identify which staffers were working on Oct. 16 and the prior days.
Due to multiple drugs found in Payne’s system at the time of his death, cops believe employees procured them for the singer and brought them in a Dove soapbox, which was found at the time of his death.
The insider further told Us Weekly that the “hotel must provide” more security camera footage.
Photos taken on Wednesday show authorities looking through documents in the CasaSur hotel, as well as coming in and out of the lobby.
The former One Direction singer died Oct. 16 after falling from the balcony of his third-story room in the Argentinian hotel. He was 31.
Payne and his girlfriend, Kate Cassidy, had been in Argentina to rekindle his friendship with bandmate Niall Horan, who was playing a concert nearby.
Despite begging her to stay, Cassidy left Buenos Aires just two days before Payne died.
However, her leaving started a spiral of erratic behavior from the singer, as eyewitnesses recalled him acting bizarrely and even smashing his laptop while in the lobby of the hotel.
This caused a hotel manager to call emergency responders to report a disruptive individual who was “high on drugs and alcohol” — later to be identified as Payne. Moments later, the singer would be found in the courtyard where he had fallen.
A preliminary autopsy revealed that the singer — who had always been open about his mental health and addictions — could have fallen from his balcony in a “semi-conscious or unconscious” state, causing him multiple traumas, including a cranial fracture.
During the initial raid of his room, which was completely trashed, authorities found drug paraphernalia and alcohol.
A toxicology report later revealed that the “For You” singer had crack, cocaine and benzodiazepine, which is a type of depressant, in his system. They also found traces of pink cocaine, a recreational drug that typically mixes methamphetamine, ketamine, MDMA and others.
It was also revealed in a press release obtained by Page Six that authorities were interrogating five people in total, including two women, who were with the singer a few hours before his death. However, it has been determined that the singer was alone in his room when he died.
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