Hotel worker accused of delivering drugs to late singer Liam Payne surrenders to police

A hotel worker accused of delivering drugs to Liam Payne shortly before his death in Buenos Aires has turned himself in to police in Argentina after being on the run.

Prosecutors confirmed that 21-year-old Ezequiel David Pereyra surrendered through his lawyer on Monday evening. Police were notified, went to his residence, and arrested him. Pereyra had been evading authorities since being charged with supplying Payne with narcotics. Pereyra has not yet entered a plea, admitted to any wrongdoing, or publicly commented on the charges against him.

According to the Argentinian newspaper La Nación, Pereyra decided to surrender after police raided his home on the outskirts of Buenos Aires with an arrest warrant on Friday, January 3. Authorities had also monitored a location where he was reportedly working, along with several other residential addresses, which intensified the pressure leading to his surrender.

TMZ previously obtained exclusive footage of Liam Payne entering the basement of CasaSur Palermo Hotel in Buenos Aires, where Pereyra, working as a bellboy, was seen shaking hands with the singer in what appeared to be a friendly exchange. The video was captured just three hours before Payne fell to his death from the third-floor balcony of his hotel suite, with the fall reportedly linked to the effects of the drugs he had taken.