Police in Argentina investigating the death of Liam Payne have reportedly raided the homes of two hotel employees and a ‘friend’ of the former One Direction singer.
According to TMZ, the raids were carried out on Tuesday night, while lockers of the workers at the hotel where the 31-year-old died were also searched.
Police believe the employees had been in contact with Liam before he plunged to his death from a third-floor balcony at the CasaSur Palermo Hotel last month.
According to TMZ’s report, Liam’s ‘friend’ was identified by police by looking at messages on his phone to see who sold him drugs.
However, it is understood the person officers were looking to speak to was not at home during the raid last night.
This development comes after police raided the same hotel late last month and seized electronic and paper records.
Argentinian officers were following up on allegations that staff had sold Liam drugs in the hours leading up to his death.
A post-mortem examination in the wake of his death determined that the 31-year-old’s cause of death on October 16 was from the head injuries sustained during his fall.
Prosecutors have since explored the theory that Liam was in ‘a state of semi or total unconsciousness’ during an apparent drug-fuelled episode on the morning of his death.
A hotel reception worker made a distressing 999 call requesting ‘urgent’ assistance after Payne had been acting erratically and was escorted back to his hotel room.
The hotel worker made two calls, saying in the first: ‘We have a guest who’s off his head on drugs and is destroying everything in his room. We need someone to come.’
He then phoned back after the line went dead, saying: ‘I don’t know if the guest’s life is in danger. The room has a balcony and we are afraid he might do something.’
Payne was said to have been ‘acting erratically in the hotel lobby and smashed his laptop’ before he ‘had to be carried back to his room’, according to local media.
Seconds later the employee, who identified himself as Esteban, added: ‘Just send an ambulance, only an ambulance.’ Workers had heard a loud sound in the courtyard before the singer’s body was discovered just after 5pm local time (9pm UK time).