Big break in Liam Payne's death investigation -- Buenos Aires authorities have charged 3 people they believe were involved ... TMZ has learned.
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00:00Liam Payne, there have been three arrests now in his death.
00:05First of all, the authorities have now said his death was not a suicide,
00:10that he fell from that third floor balcony under the influence of drugs.
00:15And now the issue is where did these drugs come from?
00:17There were search warrants earlier this week.
00:19Now three people have been arrested.
00:21A friend of his, a drug dealer, and somebody who works in the hotel.
00:27Now the drug dealer is obvious.
00:29The friend sounds like a go-between.
00:32The interesting thing, I think, is the person who works in the hotel.
00:37If you saw the remnants of what Liam left behind in the room,
00:41there is a dove box in the upper right of the screen.
00:44According to authorities, that dove box contained cocaine and other drugs
00:50that were secreted in that box,
00:53and that a hotel employee delivered it to the door where Liam Payne was staying.
01:00Well, these three people have actually been charged now.
01:02They have been charged.
01:03You get the drug dealer for sure.
01:05Yes.
01:05And the friend, if he's the go-between, I guess that's part and parcel.
01:10The hotel employee is interesting.
01:13Not because what he did was right, but when you think about it,
01:18if you have a major celebrity saying to some guy who works in a hotel,
01:22bring this box up, and we don't know, maybe there's something more than that.
01:26Do we even know that he knew what was in the box?
01:28It sounds like they're saying he did,
01:30because if he didn't, there's no way they would charge him.
01:32It's really interesting to see how these middlemen get treated, right?
01:35They're sometimes charged and sometimes not.
01:37It could very well be.
01:38There's a reason this, I believe, is a housekeeper,
01:40the person in the hotel, the hotel employee, got involved in this.
01:43It could be that this is what this person does with regularity.
01:47I mean, we're reading tea leaves here.
01:49That's true.
01:49That's true.
01:50It doesn't mean that it was a one-off.
01:52This is part of the structure that this group operates in.
01:56There are some people who have been saying,
01:57we get the drug dealer part, we even get the go-between part,
02:00but it's like if somebody works in the hotel and a big celebrity says, do this,
02:05and again, you're right, maybe this person was doing it with lots of people
02:09and it was the go-to person, but if not, if it's just one person,
02:15I don't know, it's just kind of interesting.
02:17It is, but do we know what the exact charges are yet for all three?
02:21They're going to be charged with...
02:23Are they all going to be charged the same?
02:25Well, that's an interesting question.
02:27That's an interesting question.
02:28Liam's friend was charged with abandonment of a person before death, it appears,
02:32and then the third suspect, I guess, if we're numbering them, is the actual supplier.
02:39So these are going to be charges that are obviously specific to Argentina,
02:43but they're all part of some sort of conspiracy to deliver drugs to somebody who died.
02:47You know, it's interesting, Jason, that if the person who abandoned him was not a go-between,
02:54but somebody who saw him in a certain state and didn't do anything,
02:58that's kind of a unique kind of crime.
03:01It is, because how do you prove that?
03:02We get into these Good Samaritan laws, right?
03:04At what point do you have an obligation to assist somebody in need?
03:09And in this country, at least, and Argentina is going to be very different,
03:13if you are in some way responsible for their caregiving or got them into the state
03:20that eventually caused their death, you have that responsibility.
03:23But if not, you don't.
03:24Hi, I'm Bree from New Jersey.
03:26And honestly, I was kind of shocked about them saying that it was suicide in the first place,
03:30because it just didn't seem that way.
03:32So it's interesting to see that now they're saying that there's three people being charged for it.
03:36It is kind of sad that the hotel clerk might have possibly kind of just got pulled into this,
03:41because anybody could have been that person.
03:43Because if I saw a celebrity come in,
03:45I probably would do exactly what they told me to do as well.
03:47So that's kind of unfortunate and sad.
03:48That's definitely going to be the defense in this case.
03:51So we will see.