Police in Argentina are continuing their investigation into Liam Payne's death ... conducting another round of raids on the homes of 2 hotel employees and a "friend" of the former One Direction singer, TMZ has learned.
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00:00To Liam Payne's death investigation and all new raids, the police are still trying to find the people who provided him the drugs.
00:10And they went back to the hotel where he died, conducted two raids there and actually went through lockers of two employees who they clearly feel or know had some contact with Liam.
00:23They also mentioned a friend, that's all they described this person as, a friend. They went to that friend's home, obviously in the Buenos Aires area, trying to find the person.
00:34They did not find the friend, they said. So whatever that person's connection is to this, they're still out there and the police are trying to find that person.
00:44And the hotel employees is a whole other thing. And we know that the police looked at some surveillance video, but we don't know exactly what role these employees allegedly played.
00:57Right. So, but what we do know is this, that, you know, when a celebrity dies of an overdose, when you look at Matthew Perry, when you look at Mac Miller, and now when you look at Liam Payne,
01:11sometimes the big guns come out and lots of people start investigating. They don't do this normally with non-famous people, generally.
01:20What's different about this is, yeah, they'll do it with fentanyl, like with Mac Miller. They'll do it with Matthew Perry, partly because doctors were involved.
01:29But this wasn't a fentanyl overdose, and it was a drug purchase.
01:35Several different drugs.
01:36Several different drugs. And, you know, we had an argument in the morning meeting today about whether it's fair or not. And some people think, yes, it is, because it sets an example.
01:47And others think it almost feels like the others who are not famous get lesser treatment.
01:53Well, they certainly do, but that's nothing new, right? We know that everything that involves a famous person, whether it's tragedy like befell Liam Payne or otherwise, famous people get more notice, and police are more likely to look into claims involving them.
02:07The question here, of course, is whether or not, to the point you were making, Harvey, somebody, your average run-of-the-mill drug dealer who didn't sell laced fentanyl, but just gave the client what they want, should be held criminally responsible for the eventual death of Liam Payne.
02:22And that also was pretty divisive in the newsroom.
02:24Hi, I'm Casey from Kentucky.
02:26Look, Liam Payne's death probably stems from a number of mental health issues.
02:31With that being said, you can blame the dealer, you can blame the middlemen of this operation.
02:36But whenever you have an influential figure, like you said with Mac Miller, in this case, Liam Payne, you're going to have people within that community that want answers.
02:44You're going to have a much more extensive legal case than the regular person on the streets.
02:49But let me ask you something.
02:50You're right that there's more interest in it, but does that necessarily trigger a federal investigation or, in this case, a foreign investigation?
02:58In some cases, it does.
03:00It really depends on what his influence and how that ties to that government and that particular position of power.
03:06But in this case, I would say it very well could, but I'm not for sure when it comes to that.
03:12I also think, to speak in defense of law enforcement, if they were going after, I don't know, if your neighbor, who's not famous, dies, we wouldn't know if they're going after the drug dealer.
03:25Obviously, we're interested in and report on things when there's a celebrity involved.
03:31Well, there are tens of thousands of fentanyl deaths in this country, and we know they're not getting to the bottom of these cases.
03:36They're not getting everyone, but to say that they're not trying to find the dealers in any of those cases, we just wouldn't know because we wouldn't be covering it.
03:43What we do know is that there has been an exceptionally large presence, say, with Matthew Perry than with other tragedies like that.
03:55And I'm not saying it's bad.
03:56I'm just saying kind of an interesting point to talk about.