One of three suspects investigated over Liam Payne’s death has broken his silence to insist he did nothing wrong and make claims about his relationship with the singer.
Argentine waiter Braian Nahuel Paiz, identified as the singer’s “trafficker” in an ongoing investigation, admitted having had two meetings at a hotel with the 31-year-old man before his fatal fall on October 16 and confessed to using drugs with he.
But he insisted he never provided Liam with narcotics or accepted money from him.
The 24-year-old said he spent the night with the former One Direction singer at the CasaSur Palermo Hotel in Buenos Aires during a second meeting.
Paiz, who appeared on Argentine television on Saturday, claimed the arranged meeting followed an earlier meeting preceded by an initial encounter at the restaurant in the exclusive Puerto Madero neighborhood where he worked when he claimed he and Liam exchanged contact details such as singer. He had dinner with his girlfriend Kate Cassidy and two other people.
Argentine waiter Braian Nahuel Paiz, identified as the singer’s ‘trafficker’ in an ongoing investigation, admitted to two meetings at a hotel with the 31-year-old singer.
A photo showing Paiz with Liam Payne, supposedly in the days before his death.
Liam’s last Snapchat post before falling to his death from the third floor of a hotel in Buenos Aires
He spoke in an on-camera interview with journalist Guillermo Panizza, who had to clarify to a program announcer in the studio what Paiz meant at a time when the young man’s nerves seemed to take over him and his story left viewers confused and said Liam used a ‘secret’ Instagram to communicate with Paiz.
The first meeting with Liam is said to have occurred on October 2 at another hotel where the singer was staying before moving to CasaSur Palermo after their initial meeting at a restaurant.
Paiz said in an early segment of the extraordinary interview, admitting that his former home had been searched but claiming that he had not yet been questioned by investigators: “I never supplied drugs to Liam.
‘Liam’s first contact with me was at my workplace.
‘We exchanged details and saw each other later that night. Everything was normal. He came down from his hotel room to look for me because I was lost.
Naming the hotel the ‘Hyatt in Palermo’, he added: ‘We met there and he showed me some of the music he was going to release.
‘I’ve heard people say that he was using drugs but the truth is that when he arrived at the restaurant where I worked he was already under the influence of drugs and he didn’t actually eat anything.
‘There was a moment when he approached me and asked for my contact details. I put him on Instagram and then he sent me messages because he wanted to get high even though he had already used drugs.
“It was October 2. While I was in his room we had a few shots of whiskey.”
He continued, after the TV show showed viewers a photo of him and Liam together, supposedly taken during their first meeting at a hotel, where the singer was wearing a white T-shirt and baseball cap: “Our second meeting at the hotel was on Sunday night in October.” 13.
‘We spent the night together, we did drugs because the truth is that something intimate happened.
“I stayed there all night. I used marijuana and he used cocaine, the cocaine that is in all the photos that came out after his death.
‘I was separating it and cleaning it before smoking it. I didn’t tell him anything about it because it seemed normal to me.
“He wasn’t aggressive at all, he behaved very well with me, he was very sweet.” He asked me if I was okay.
‘I have all the messages where we organized that second meeting. I haven’t deleted anything.’
Liam looks at his laptop in the lobby of the Casa Sur Hotel in Buenos Aires on Wednesday at 4:26 p.m. The alarm was raised at 5:04 p.m. after his fall.
Alleging in a rambling account of the night’s events that when he came out, Liam “seemed scared” and instead of putting his room card in the key slot, he stuffed a handful of papers into it to “keep the door open.” “He stated: “I didn’t really understand what was happening but at the same time I realized that something strange was happening.
Paiz added in a third and final segment of his television interview: ‘We used drugs together, but I never used them or accepted money.
‘I have messages where he offers me money because apparently he was used to offering money for everything but I never accepted anything.
‘When I left he wanted to give me some clothes so that I would have a memory of being with him but I left them behind the television because I didn’t want to take them with me. They were gray jogging pants and a t-shirt.
‘I told Liam that a best friend of mine wanted to meet him because he was a fan. He said “yes” and after I went he appeared outside the place where I lived and made it halfway up the building and wanted us to go back to his hotel, but I told him I couldn’t because I had to go to work.
‘I had to start at 11.30 but I had to arrive earlier. That was the last time I saw him. He got into his taxi and left.
Paiz said he had no idea who the other two suspects under official investigation are, adding: “When I saw the photos from inside Liam’s hotel room, nothing made sense to me.
“The package of Dove soap was there when I was at the hotel, but I couldn’t understand what it was for, nor the candles or the glass of water.”
Over the weekend it emerged that Argentine police investigating Liam’s death are still searching for the singer’s missing Rolex watch.
Liam arrives at the UK premiere of ‘All Those Voices’ at Cineworld Leicester Square on March 16, 2023
A drone view shows the balcony of the Casa Sur Hotel from where Payne fell to his death
Paiz was not asked during his interview about the expensive watch.
The restaurant worker, who is said to have been fired from his job following his involvement in the ongoing criminal investigation, is the second person linked to Liam to speak out.
Liam’s close friend Rogelio ‘Roger’ Nores protested his innocence after being named locally last week as one of the trio under investigation.
Responding to reports identifying him as one of the suspects linked to the drug allegations and allegations that he abandoned Liam before his death, businessman Nores, who had previously been described as the singer’s manager, said in a statement: “I never left Liam. I went to his hotel three times that day and left 40 minutes before this happened.
‘There were over 15 people in the hotel lobby chatting and joking with him when I left. I never could have imagined something like this would happen.
‘I gave my statement to the prosecutor on October 17 as a witness and since then I have not spoken to any police officer or prosecutor.
‘I wasn’t Liam’s manager. He was just my very dear friend.
He added: “I am truly heartbroken by this tragedy and have been missing my friend every day.”
The third suspect, who has not yet spoken publicly, has been identified locally as a hotel worker named Ezequiel David Pereyra, 21.
Prosecutors said in their lengthy statement released last Thursday that three men they did not identify by name were now being formally investigated on suspicion of abandoning a person who later died and of supplying and facilitating drugs.
Large crowd gathers in London to honor former One Direction star
The statement described one as the person who “routinely accompanied Liam during his stay in Buenos Aires.”
Tests have shown the 31-year-old man consumed alcohol and cocaine before he died and also had traces of an antidepressant in his system.
Prosecutors also made clear that the idea that Liam had committed suicide had been ruled out, saying he was in a state of “partial or complete unconsciousness” when he fell to his death when he “didn’t know what he was doing.”
They said of the hotel worker and the alleged ‘drug dealer’: ‘The second suspect is a hotel employee who must answer for two proven supplies of cocaine to Liam Payne during the time he was at the hotel.
“The third is also a drug dealer who is being investigated on suspicion of two other clearly proven cocaine supplies at two different times on October 14.”
Liam’s father Geoff flew to Argentina two days after his son’s death and returned to the UK with his body last Thursday to help finalize funeral arrangements after a second visit to the makeshift shrine set up by fans outside the singer’s hotel.
The funeral is expected to take place in Liam’s hometown of Wolverhampton.