Argentinian police investigating Liam Payne’s death are still hunting for the singer’s missing designer watch, it was claimed today. The Rolex was not found during raids last week on the homes of three men suspected in an ongoing criminal investigation.

Respected Argentinian publication La Nacion says searches of the homes of two women with whom Liam spent his last hours – who are being treated as witnesses and have not been charged with any crime – turned up nothing.

It was reported this weekend that Hotel CasaSur Palermo will be searched again for the expensive watch.

According to La Nacion, the operation in the “next 72 hours” will focus on the former One Direction singer’s luxury camera, in case the Rolex, which investigators suspected was stolen, was missed the first time.

Liam is said to have been seen wearing the Rolex in CCTV footage and other photographs embedded in prosecution files shortly before he died at around 5pm local time on October 16.

A judicial source told La Nacion: “We know from the images that have been analyzed that Liam had the watch on the day of his death.

“He had it in one of his hands and he had it at least two to three hours before the fatal hotel collapse. I looked for him in his hotel room and couldn’t find him.

“The watch was searched at the homes of the three people investigated on suspicion of abandoning Liam and supplying and facilitating drugs, as well as the homes of the two women who were in his room with him on the afternoon he died. The room is still closed by court order and no one can enter.

“Searching for the watch in the homes of people Liam had contact with before his death was the initial priority, but another inspection will now take place to see if it remains somewhere in his room.”

Liam’s close friend Rogelio ‘Roger’ Nores protested his innocence after he was named locally last week as one of three men under investigation.

Responding to reports which identified him as one of the suspects linked to drug allegations and allegations that he abandoned Liam before his death, businessman Mr Nores, who was previously described as the singer’s manager, said in a statement: “I never abandoned Liam. , I went to his hotel three times that day and left 40 minutes before this happened.

“There were over 15 people in the hotel lobby chatting and joking with him when I left. I could never have imagined that such a thing would happen.

“I gave my statement to the prosecutor on October 17 as a witness and since then I have not spoken to any police or prosecutor. I wasn’t Liam’s manager. He was just my very dear friend.”

He added: “I am heartbroken by this tragedy and have missed my friend every day.”

The other two men were also named in the Argentine press as a hotel worker and a “drug dealer”.

Prosecutors said in their statement released last Thursday that three unnamed men are now being formally investigated on suspicion of abandoning a person who later died and supplying and facilitating drugs.

The statement describes one as the person who “usually accompanied Liam during his stay in Buenos Aires.”

Tests showed the 31-year-old was high on alcohol, cocaine and a prescription anti-depressant before he died.

Prosecutors also said they were not treating Liam’s death as a suicide because he was in a state of “semi-to-total unconsciousness” and would not have “known what he was doing” when he fell from the third-floor balcony.

They said of the hotel worker and “drug dealer”: “The second suspect is a hotel employee who has to answer for two proven deliveries of cocaine to Liam Payne while he was at the hotel.

“The third is also a drug dealer who is being investigated on suspicion of two further clearly proven deliveries of cocaine at two different times on October 14.”

The singer’s father Geoff Payne flew to Argentina two days after his son died and returned to the UK with his body last Thursday to help complete the funeral arrangements. The funeral is expected to take place in Liam’s hometown of Wolverhampton.