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Argentine police have raided the hotel room that Liam Payne was staying in to seize electronics as they search for his drug dealer.
Authorities in Buenos Aires, Argentina, showed up at the CasaSur Palermo Hotel on the night of Wednesday, October 23, to review electronic and paper records, according to TMZ. The search came one week after Liam fell to his death from the third-floor balcony of his room into a courtyard on October 16.
Police reportedly examined information that was contained in folders and on laptops with hotel employees in an attempt to discover who sold Liam drugs. Documentation, film records and videos of the hotel’s underground area were seized amid the raid.
The outlet reported that the authorities are focused on one hotel employee who they believe could have potentially sold the former One Direction member drugs.
In Touch previously learned that Liam’s death may not have been intentional. Authorities believe that the specific substances he took may have had a different effect on him than the drugs he had used in the past. Due to the different qualities of the drugs, it’s believed that the substances potentially could have played a major factor in his death.
Forensic toxicologist Fernando Cardini explained that the unfamiliar drugs could have led Liam to be in a “substance-induced,” “semi-conscious” or “unconscious” state before he fell off the balcony.
“There was a situation in which a person consumed drugs, but being in a different country, perhaps it didn’t have the same concentration of drug that he bought,” Cardini told Argentine TV channel Todo Noticias’. “Perhaps that got the better of him.”
In Touch has also learned that Liam’s dad, Geoff Payne, is willing to help authorities amid the investigation.
In light of the investigation, In Touch has learned Geoff is willing to share everything he knows about his son’s life that could help authorities uncover exactly what happened leading up to Liam’s death.
Geoff has communicated with case prosecutor Dr. Andres Esteban Madrea about “his desire to investigate and to know what happened” with the “Night Changes” singer, according to Us Weekly.
Geoff is expected to remain in Argentina under “dynamic police custody until the end of the judicial proceedings,” the prosecutor’s office revealed to Us Weekly.
Meanwhile, authorities are making sure “the privacy of the family of the former member of the band One Direction” is being considered amid the investigation.
“Everything that arises within the framework of the investigation will first be informed to the family,” the department said on Tuesday, October 22. “And given the high public exposure that the musician had, the communication will be limited to the institutional channels of the Public Prosecutor’s Office.”
Five days after Liam died, his autopsy revealed that he had pink cocaine, cocaine, benzodiazepine and crack in his system at the time of his death. According to the National Capital Poison Center, pink cocaine is a mixture of “potentially dangerous drugs, including 2-CB, MDMA (ecstasy), ketamine and caffeine in various amounts. This mixture can cause serious adverse effects and lead to long-term addiction.”
IN TOUCH WEEKLY