Five arrested for Matthew Perry's drug overdose death including dealer known as the 'Ketamine queen'

By Bethan Sexton and Josh Boswell and Marjorie Hernandez West Coast Editor For Daily Mail.Com 18:19 15 Aug 2024, updated 15:34 16 Aug 2024

• READ MORE: Matthew Perry lived in secret LA rental for a year

Five people, including two doctors, a live-in assistant and an alleged drug dealer known as the 'Ketamine Queen', have been arrested in connection with the overdose death of Matthew Perry.

The suspects were apprehended on Thursday over claims they are part of a 'broad underground criminal network' that supplied the Friends star the ketamine that killed him in October 2023.

Doctors Salvador Plasencia, 42, and Mark Chavez, 54, alleged drug dealers Jasveen 'Ketamine Queen' Sangha, 41, and Eric Fleming, 54, and Perry's live-in assistant Kenneth Iwamasa, 59, have all been charged. 

Prosecutors say the group preyed on the vulnerable star's addiction issues, with the doctors even referring to him as a 'moron' in cruel texts where they discussed how to further exploit him.

Perry was found unresponsive in the hot tub of his LA home on October 28 by Iwamasa. His cause of death later determined to be 'the acute effects of ketamine'. 

The live-in assistant has since admitted being the one who administered the fatal doses to the actor, after being trained how to deliver them by Plasencia.

Court documents allege that Iwamasa injected Perry with 27 shots of ketamine in five days. 

But prosecutors claim that Sangha's distribution of the substance on October 4, 2023 led to his death.

Sangha had thousands of pills and kilograms of powder in her 'drugs emporium' home, photos published by prosecutors reveal.

Federal law enforcement raided her home in March and recovered the incriminating evidence – along with text messages about selling 'double strength' ketamine.

Sangha, who has dual US and British citizenship, is now charged with a slew of drug offenses related to supplying the ketamine that killed Perry.

An affidavit filed in a Los Angeles federal court by freshman DEA agent Tyler Abrego on March 20 describes a raid the day before on Sangha's home.

'During the search, law enforcement seized significant quantities of illegal drugs, including approximately 1,978 grams of orange pills that field tested positive for methamphetamine, 79 bottles containing a clear liquid that field tested positive for ketamine, and various other suspect narcotics,' Agent Abrego wrote in the criminal complaint.

A handgun can also be seen in a photo of the seized drugs included in Abrego's affidavit.

The complaint said Sangha was a 'large volume drug dealer' previously identified by the DEA, LAPD homicide detectives and the US Postal Inspection Service.

Agents seized her cell phone, which had 'conversations related to selling pressed methamphetamine pills and ketamine.'

In one March text conversation about selling ketamine, she asked for a payment of '958,51' to her PayPal, and said 'I think you'll like these but remember they're double strength'.

Videos recovered from her phone showed her 'cooking ketamine', the DEA agent wrote.

In a press conference, US attorney Martin Estrada described Perry's steady descent into ketamine addiction, which started with him obtaining the controlled substance through doctors, before eventually resorting to street vendors.

An explosive indictment alleges that the defendants made tens of thousands of dollars by selling the narcotic to the troubled star.

In one instance, Plascenica worked with Chavez to charge Perry $2,000 for a vial of ketamine that cost $12, after he became increasingly desperate to get his hands on the drug, according to the filings.

The doctors allegedly used Iwamasa, 59, to distribute approximately 20 vials of ketamine to the actor over a two-month period from September to October 2023 'in exchange for 55,000 dollars'.

Text messages between them show them conspiring to supply Perry, with Plasencia insisting that he wants to be the star's 'go to' for the narcotic, the indictment shows.

In one message, prosecutors claim that Plasencia sent a message to Chavez asking, 'I wonder how much this moron will pay', in reference to Perry.

Estrada added that the defendants exchanged other messages in which they tried to cover up their involvement in supplying Perry ketamine after his death.

After it was reported in the news, Sangha texted Fleming, 'Delete all our messages', prosecutors said.

Plasencia is charged with seven counts of distribution of ketamine and two counts of altering and falsifying documents or records related to the federal investigation. 

The other three defendants were charged separately and two have pleaded guilty, with a third agreeing to plead guilty.

Fleming admitted to obtaining the ketamine from Sangha and distributing it to Iwamasa, who admitted then giving the drug to the star.

On one occasion, Iwamasa is said to have met with Plasencia in a public Long Beach parking lot where the doctor injected the star with ketamine inside a vehicle.

Two days later, he did the same thing with a large dose of ketamine at Perry's home that caused him to 'freeze up' and his blood pressure to significantly spike, the indictment says.

Plasencia told Iwamasa something to the effect of: 'Let's not do that again,' but he still left additional vials of ketamine with Iwamasa for injecting Perry with, court papers say.

Meanwhile in his plea agreement, San Diego doctor Chavez admitted to diverting supplies from his clinic, to Plasencia by filling out fake prescriptions.

'These defendants cared more about profiting off of Mr. Perry than caring for his well-being,' Estrada said.

'Drug dealers selling dangerous substances are gambling with other people's lives over greed. This case, along with our many other prosecutions of drug-dealers who cause death, send a clear message that we will hold drug-dealers accountable for the deaths they cause.' 

He added that Sangha was aware of the dangers of ketamine after she allegedly sold it to another victim, Cody McLaury, hours before his overdose death in 2019.

After a family member of McLaury’s sent her a text message saying that her ketamine had killed McLaury, Sangha conducted a Google search for 'can ketamine be listed as a cause of death', prosecutors said.

If convicted of all charges, Sangha could face a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years in federal prison and a statutory maximum sentence of life imprisonment.

Plasencia could face up to 10 years in federal prison for each ketamine-related count and up to 20 years in federal prison for each records falsification count.

Iwamasa and Fleming will face up to 15 years and 25 years, respectively, when they are sentenced in their federal cases.

Chavez has been charged in an information pursuant to a plea agreement and will be arraigned on August 30. At sentencing, Chavez will face up to 10 years in federal prison.

'We allege each of the defendants played a key role in his death by falsely prescribing, selling, or injecting the ketamine that caused Matthew Perry's tragic death,' said DEA Administrator Anne Milgram.

'Matthew Perry's journey began with unscrupulous doctors who abused their position of trust because they saw him as a payday, to street dealers who gave him ketamine in unmarked vials.'

Beloved actor Perry had been receiving prescribed ketamine therapy to treat his anxiety and depression.

But he had not had one of those treatments for a week-and-a-half prior to his death.

That means the ketamine found in his system after he drowned had not been prescribed. 

The amount in his blood was in the range used for general anesthesia during surgery.

It was listed as the primary cause of death, which was ruled an accident with no foul play suspected, the report said.

The actor had been open about his struggles with substance abuse. 

In 2022, he said he estimated he had that spent $9 million battling his addictions across 15 rehab stays.