An Argentinian waiter has admitted to taking drugs with Liam Payne in his hotel room before his death, but has insisted he did not accept money for them.
Braian Nahuel Paiz has spoken out after being arrested in connection with the death of Liam Payne, who fell from the third-floor balcony of a hotel in Buenos Aires.
The 24-year-old met Liam at the restaurant where he worked two nights before his tragic death and claims they spent those nights drinking whiskey and taking cocaine.
Paiz has been arrested on charges of supplying and facilitating narcotics, but has denied any involvement in Liam’s death.
Now, ahead of an upcoming documentary entitled TMZ Investigates: Liam Payne: Who’s to Blame?, Paiz admitted to taking cocaine with Liam but denied accepting any money for drugs, including a Rolex watch.
‘They say I’m the dealer, that I carry drugs, that I sold them and the truth is that no, no I didn’t sell them,’ Paiz told TMZ.
When asked if he used drugs with Liam on the night he met the star, Paiz added: ‘Yeah, there was. There was cocaine – there wasn’t even a lot of it but we had some with whiskey.’
‘The second night too. The soap box and some aluminum foil was already there – drugs scattered everywhere.’
Paiz told TMZ he did not accept Liam’s money for the drugs and claimed the One Direction star wanted to offer him his Rolex, but that he declined the offer.
‘I didn’t accept it. I didn’t accept anything just a drawing that he drew which were part of my eyes, nose mouth,’ he added.
A photo showing Paiz with Liam Payne, allegedly during their first arranged meeting at a hotel
Liam last post on Snapchat before he fell to his death from the third floor of a hotel in Buenos Aires
The paraphernalia left in Liam’s room when police entered the hotel suite. Paiz admitted the pair ‘took drugs together’
On October 16, Liam, who was just 31, fell 46 ft from the third-floor balcony of Room 10 in the CasaSur hotel in the upmarket Palermo district where he had been staying for the previous three days as part of a two-week trip to the South American capital.
Among other things he was there to see his former One Direction bandmate Niall Horan in a solo show at the 15,000-capacity Movistar Arena on October 2.
Paiz has previously addressed the allegations made against him. Appearing on Argentinian TV last month, he claimed he first met Liam at the restaurant where he worked in the upmarket neighbourhood of Puerto Madero.
He said he exchanged contact details with the singer as he dined with his girlfriend Kate Cassidy and two other people.
He spoke in an on-camera interview to journalist Guillermo Panizza, who at points had to clarify to a programme host in the studio what Paiz meant to say when the young man’s nerves seemed to get the better of him.
After first bumping into Liam at the restaurant where he worked, Paiz said he next saw him on October 2 at an arranged meeting at a hotel where the singer was staying.
‘I never supplied Liam with drugs,’ he said. ‘Liam’s first contact with me was at my place of work.
‘We swapped details and saw each other later that night. It was all normal. He came down from his hotel room to fetch me because I had got lost.’
An Instagram post by 24-year-old Braian Nahuel Paiz, who stands beside the late Liam Payne before he fell to his death in Buenos Aires, Argentina. The post reads: ‘Fly high, Chief. Thank you for having enlightened me and for crossing you into my reality. I will always remember you’
Paiz is in an ongoing prosecution probe and admitted to two hotel meetings with the 31-year-old
A drone view shows the balcony on the CasaSur Hotel from where Payne fell to his death
Liam looks at his laptop in the CasaSur Hotel lobby in Buenos Aires on Wednesday at 4.26pm The alarm was raised at 5.04pm following his fall
Naming the hotel where they first arranged to meet as the ‘Hyatt in Palermo’, he added: ‘We got together there and he showed me some of the music he was going to bring out.
‘I’ve heard people saying he was taking drugs but the truth is that when he got to the restaurant where I was working he was already under the effects of drugs and he didn’t actually eat anything.
‘There was a moment when he approached me and asked me for my contact details. I gave him an Instagram and afterwards he sent me messages because he wanted to take drugs although he had already consumed narcotics.
‘It was October 2. While I was in his room we had some whisky shots.’
The TV programme showed viewers a photo of him and Liam together, which was said to have been taken during their first hotel meeting
Paiz said they next met on October 13 at the CasaSur Palermo Hotel, three days before Liam’s death.
‘We spent the night together, we consumed drugs because the truth is that something intimate happened, he said.
‘He wasn’t aggressive at all, he behaved really well with me, he was really sweet. He asked me if I was okay.
‘I’ve got all the messages where we arranged that second meeting. I haven’t erased anything.’
Paiz claimed he did not take any cash from the singer.
Liam arrives at the ‘All Of Those Voices’ UK Premiere at Cineworld Leicester Square on March 16, 2023
A large crowd gathers in London to honour the former One Direction star
‘We took drugs together but I never took drugs to him or accepted any money,’ he said.
‘I have messages where he’s offering me money because he was apparently used to offering money for everything but I never accepted anything.
‘When I left he wanted to give me some clothes so that I had a memory of being with him but I left it behind the TV because I didn’t want to take it. It was some grey jogging bottoms and a T-shirt.
‘I told Liam 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 managed to get halfway into 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 was due to start at 11.30am but I had to arrive beforehand. That was the last time I saw him. He got into his taxi and left.’
Paiz is believed to have grown up in Berazategui, a working-class district several miles south of the city centre, The Mail previously reported.
In Berazategui, he had a reputation for partying hard. Aldana, a childhood friend, told us: ‘Braian and I met at a rave eight years ago.
‘He was an outgoing boy who liked partying and taking ecstasy.’
Paiz began his career as a hairstylist in the film business.
However, he recently attempted to make it as a model and actor, supporting himself by waiting tables at Las Lilas.
The day after Liam’s death, Paiz posted two selfies taken with the singer alongside the caption: ‘Fly high, Chief. Thank you for having enlightened me and for crossing into my reality. I will always remember you. See you on other side’. He completed the tribute with a heart emoji.
The tender post was met with rage by Liam’s fans, who apparently blame him for supplying at least some of the drugs that helped lead to their idol’s death.
One user commented: ‘You are a murderer.’ Another said: ‘THIS IS SICK.’ Paiz later turned off comments to stem this tide of vitriol.
Paiz later posted a further picture of himself with Liam, alongside a rambling caption that insisted: ‘I will clear my name . . . I AM NOT THE DEALER.’
Paiz, along with a 21-year-old hotel worker named Ezequiel David Pereyra, remain under investigation by the Argentinian authorities.
He has handed his passport in to the police and is waiting to hear whether a prosecution will be brought before a judge.
The third man accused is millionaire energy tycoon and friend of Payne, Roger ‘Rogelio’ Nores, who denies ‘abandonment of a person followed by death’.
The One Direction star’s demise sent shockwaves around the world, raising stark questions about the welfare of young performers thrust into the spotlight at a tender age.
Payne had first auditioned for the X Factor when he was just 14.