An Argentinian waiter linked to the investigation into One Direction star Liam Payne’s death has admitted using cocaine with the singer — but insists he was not his drug dealer.
Braian Paiz, 24, told TMZ that he did cocaine and drank whiskey with the troubled star just two days before the singer took a fatal plunge from the third-floor balcony of his Buenos Aires hotel room.
“They say I’m the dealer, that I carried drugs, that I sold them,” he told the outlet. “And the truth is that no, no I didn’t sell them.”
Paiz said he and Payne, 31, met at the restaurant where he worked and bonded over their mutual love of drawing. The two partied together for two nights in a row two days before Payne fell to his death.
The waiter said he saw drugs scattered “everywhere” in the singer’s hotel room, including the Dove soap box and tin foil seen in photographs after Payne’s death. He insisted, however, that the two only did cocaine and drank whiskey together.
He also claimed to have never taken any money from Payne and said he declined to take a Rolex watch the star offered as payment.
“I didn’t accept anything, just a drawing that he drew which was part of my eyes, nose and mouth,” Paiz said. “He draws. I draw. I’m studying to do it so I had drawings.”
Paiz is one of three individuals identified by Argentinian police in their investigation into the singer’s death, according to TMZ.
All three suspects are being sought for arrest and questioning in connection with criminal counts including “abandonment of a person followed by death” and “supply and facilitation of narcotics,” according to the National Criminal and Correctional Prosecutor’s Office No. 14.
The first man accused was with the troubled former One Direction member “on a daily basis” during his stay in Buenos Aires, according to the prosecutor’s office.
A second defendant was an employee of the CasaSur Palermo Hotel, who allegedly sold cocaine to Payne during his stay.
The third man, described only as “a drug supplier,” is said to have also provided the crooner with drugs on two different occasions on Oct. 14 — two days before his fatal plunge.
The clip, shared by TMZ, was part of a special “TMZ Investigates: Liam Payne: Who’s to Blame?” airing Monday evening on Fox.
