Matthew Perry's tragic last days: Friends star was injected 21 times with drugs in final week of his life, called a 'moron' and charged $2,000 for vial that cost $12 as his addiction was preyed upon
- Charges have been announced over the US actor's death aged 54 last October
- Who is Jasveen Sangha? The LA drug dealer known as the 'Ketamine Queen'
Harrowing new details about the tragic final days of Friends star Matthew Perry have been revealed as doctors and drug dealers were charged over his ketamine overdose death.
The actor was allegedly injected at least 21 times with drugs in the last week of his life - with a Hollywood dealer dubbed the 'Ketamine Queen' said to be among those involved.
Investigators have accused a group of people of preying on the vulnerable star's addiction issues, with one doctor even labelling him a 'moron' shortly before Perry's death on October 28 last year.
Five people including two doctors, a live-in assistant and the alleged 'Ketamine Queen' dealer have been arrested in connection with the tragedy.
They were taken into custody yesterday over claims they were part of a 'broad underground criminal network' supplying Perry with the ketamine that killed him.
Friends star Matthew Perry, seen here stepping out for dinner in Los Angeles October 21 last year, was found dead at his home a week later
The actor came to fame in US sitcom Friends alongside Matt Le Blanc, David Schwimmer, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow and Jennifer Aniston
Jasveen Sangha, dubbed the 'Ketamine Queen', has been arrested in connection with Perry's death aged 54 last October
Also accused is Dr Salvador Plasencia, who prosecutors say referred to Perry as a 'moron' in a text message while supplying the actor with ketamine
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.
Perry, 54, was found unresponsive in the hot tub of his LA home on October 28 by Iwamasa, with his cause of death later determined to be 'the acute effects of ketamine'.
The live-in assistant Iwamasa has since admitted being the one who administered the fatal doses to the actor, after being trained how to deliver them by Plasencia.
Prosecutors claim that Sangha's distribution of the substance on October 4 last year led to the actor's death.
In a press conference yesterday, 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, Plasencia worked with Chavez to charge Perry $2,000 (£1,550) for a vial of ketamine that cost $12 (£9.30) 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 star over a two-month period in September and October last year in exchange for $55,000 (£43,000).
nvestigators say they discovered a 'drugs emporium' at Sangha's home during a raid in March 2024 including 79 bottles containing a clear liquid that field tested positive for ketamine
The popular sitcom's cast got back together for a special called 'Friends: The Reunion' in 2021
Perry was found unresponsive in the hot tub of his LA home on October 28 last year
On October 4 Iwamasa reported that he had successfully injected Perry, noting that he 'found the sweet spot but trying different places led to running out' of ketamine.
Text messages between the group show them conspiring to supply Perry, with Plascencia insisting he wanted to be the star's 'go to' for the narcotic, the indictment shows.
Prosecutors say that Plasencia, 42, sent one message to Chavez suggesting, 'I wonder how much this moron will pay', in reference to Perry.
He is also said to have texted Chavez about buying ketamine so he could sell it to the person he described as 'victim M.P.'
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 to order, 'Delete all our messages', prosecutors said.
It has now been claimed that Perry suffered a seizure during an overdose just 16 days before he died - allegedly prompting Plasencia to tell the actor's assistant: 'Let's not do that again.'
Plascencia had a licence to prescribe and administer ketamine but needed help from another medic to keep pace with the vast amounts the Friends star was consuming in the weeks before he died.
Charges against five people in relation to Matthew Perry's death were announced by Drug Enforcement Agency administrator Anne Milgram at a news conference on Thursday
Jasveen Sangha (pictured) had thousands of pills and kilograms of powder in her 'drugs emporium' home, photos published by officials revealed
Sangha, who is facing drugs charges, has been nicknamed 'the Ketamine Queen'
Sangha had thousands of pills and kilograms of powder in her 'drugs emporium' home, photos published by officials revealed.
Federal law enforcement officers 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 series of drug offences related to supplying the ketamine that killed Perry.
An affidavit filed in a Los Angeles federal court by DEA agent Tyler Abrego on March 20 describes a raid on Sangha's home the previous day.
He wrote, in the criminal complaint: '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.'
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 confiscated her cell phone, which had 'conversations related to selling pressed methamphetamine pills and ketamine'.
The sitcom Friends ran for ten series over the course of a decade between 1994 and 2004
Perry remained lasting pals with Friends co-stars Lisa Kudrow (left) and Jennifer Aniston (right)
Perry, pictured here at his Los Angeles home in February last year, was open about his struggles with alcoholism and substance abuse
In one March text conversation about selling ketamine, she asked for a payment of '958,51' to her PayPal, adding: '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.
DEA Administrator Anne Milgram said: '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.
'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.'
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.
Perry's book Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing: A Memoir came out in November 2022
He played the wisecracking character Chandler Bing in the sitcom Friends
Perry (right) is seen alongside Friends co-star Matt Le Blanc backstage following a performance of the play The End Of Longing at London's Playhouse Theatre in April 2016
The actor had been open about his struggles with substance abuse.
In 2022, he said he estimated that he had spent $9million (£7million) battling his addictions across 15 different stints in rehab.
The actor underwent therapy twice a week for 30 years and attended 6,000 Alcoholics Anonymous meetings.
He wrote in his autobiography published in November 2022: 'It is very odd to live in a world where, if you died, it would shock people but surprise no one.'
Friends including sitcom co-star Jennifer Aniston had insisted that Perry was 'doing great' in the period before his death, but an autopsy document published last December revealed grim insights into his last days.
Perry died of the 'acute effects of ketamine', according to a coroner, as well as the effects of buprenorphine, an opioid-type drug used to treat opioid addiction.
Having played the tennis-like racket game pickleball with friends at 11am on October 28, the actor was last seen alive at 1.37pm by his assistant, who left the house to run errands.
The autopsy report stated: 'At 16:00 hours the assistant returned home and found the decedent floating face down in the heated end of the pool.
Tributes were left to Matthew Perry last October in front of a New York building used for exterior shots featured in the sitcom Friends
Perry (right) is seen as Chandler Bing in a Friends scene with David Schwimmer (left) and Ross Geller and Lisa Kudrow (centre) as Phoebe Buffay
The six main cast members of Friends posed backstage together after the show won the Outstanding Comedy Series prize at the 54th Emmy Awards in Los Angeles in September 2002
'The assistant jumped into the pool and moved him into a sitting position on the steps and called 911. Paramedics responded, pulled the decedent out of the pool and onto the grass and pronounced him dead on scene.
'Decedent had a history of drug abuse (clean 19 months), history of smoking, two packs a day (recently quit) and his last ketamine treatment was a week-and-a-half ago.'
Perry was pronounced dead at 4.17pm. Detectives checked the building's electronic security system and found no one else had entered the property.
Plasencia has now been charged with seven counts of distribution of ketamine and two counts of altering and falsifying documents or records.
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 Plascencia in a public Long Beach parking lot where the doctor injected Perry 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.
Matthew Perry estimated that he had spent $9million (£7million) battling his addictions across 15 different stints in rehab
Friends performers (left to right) David Schwimmer, Courteney Cox, Jennifer Aniston, Matthew Perry, Matt Le Blanc and Lisa Kudrow are seen in an episode broadcast in February 2001
Los Angeles Police Department's Interim Chief Dominic Choi is seen speaking during a press conference on Thursday about the investigation connected to Matthew Perry's death
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 into Perry, court papers say.
Meanwhile, in his plea agreement, San Diego doctor Chavez admitted to diverting supplies from his clinic, to Plascencia by filling out fake prescriptions.
The US attorney Martin Estrada said: 'These defendants cared more about profiting off of Mr. Perry than caring for his well-being.
'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.
Perry, seen at the premiere of The Circle at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York in April 2017, performed in Hollywood films and other TV shows including Ally McBeal and The West Wing
Jasveen Sangha (pictured) has been arrested in connection to actor Matthew Perry 's death
Jennifer Aniston (right) posted an Instagram tribute to Matthew Perry (left) following his death last October, saying: 'Rest little brother. You always made my day'
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 charge.
Iwamasa and Fleming face up to 15 years and 25 years respectively when sentenced in their federal cases.
Chavez has been charged in an information pursuant to a plea agreement and will be arraigned on August 30 - and could be given up to 10 years in federal prison.
Perry's ex-girlfriend Kayti Edwards, who dated him in 2006 and worked as his assistant in 2011 at the height of his drug addiction, has previously called for police to investigate medical staff.
She said she wanted them 'to see if he had a deal with any of them to give him some ketamine on the side'.
