A waiter has confessed to using cocaine with the late British artist Liam Payne but maintains he is not a drug dealer and never accepted payment for supplying drugs.
In the upcoming documentary TMZ Investigates: Liam Payne: Who’s to Blame?, which airs on Monday at 8 PM ET on FOX, Braian Paiz provides a detailed account of his interactions with Payne in Buenos Aires.
Paiz reveals that he partied with the singer in his hotel room on two separate occasions. During these gatherings, the two consumed whiskey and cocaine, substances Paiz admitted to bringing along himself. The second encounter occurred just two days before Payne’s fatal fall from the hotel balcony.
“There were drugs scattered everywhere in the room,” Paiz disclosed in the documentary.
Items such as a Dove soap box and tin foil were visible in photographs taken after Payne’s death.
Despite this, Paiz denied being a drug dealer. “I never sold drugs to him or anyone else,” he insisted, emphasizing that he never accepted money from Payne for the cocaine.
Paiz went on to recount a moment when Payne offered him a Rolex watch as a form of payment.
“I refused,” he said firmly. “There was no exchange of money or valuables between us for the drugs.”
However, Paiz admitted to accepting a keepsake from Payne, which he teased during his interview in the documentary. “There is one gift he did take from Liam,” the filmmakers reveal, though they leave the nature of the item undisclosed for now.
Authorities are pursuing charges against Paiz and four other men in connection with Payne’s untimely death. The documentary also includes interviews with several other figures, such as Roger Nores, a close friend of Payne’s.
Nores faces accusations of abandonment and of providing drugs to Payne.
