Liam Payne's Drug Use Had Him 'Close To Death' for Years, Roger Nores Claims

Liam Payne's drug use had him "close to death" on multiple occasions ... long before his fatal fall from a hotel balcony in Argentina ... at least according to his friend, Roger Nores.

In new legal documents from Argentina, obtained by TMZ, Nores recalls Liam's drug issues ... claiming the late One Direction singer had to be revived two times in as many years.

Nores is charged with abandoning Liam before his fatal fall back in October, and he's defending himself against criminal charges here ... by talking about Liam's drug habit.

Roger says Liam spent the last year in and out of rehab in an attempt to overcome substance abuse ... but he says rehab wasn't successful and Liam's addiction worsened, to the point where Liam turned to harder drugs, such as heroin.

In the documents, Nores says Liam was "close to death" in September 2023 as a result of a "severe intoxication" ... leading to a 3-day hospital stay in Italy.

Nores claims Liam was again hospitalized twice in London late in 2023 ... and in one of those instances, Liam was transported in an ambulance and had to be resuscitated.

Despite the alleged brush with death, Roger claims Liam's drug habit got worse this year ... he says Liam went to rehab in Spain in March, left before completing treatment, and then relapsed in April and had to be revived again.

The claims Roger lays out in the docs are similar to what he told us for our new documentary, "TMZ Presents: Liam Payne: Who's to Blame?"

Roger says he's not to blame for Liam's death, saying in the docs ... "I was a friend who loved him very much, who helped him selflessly in everything I could, who spent my own money to help him, and even then it was not enough."