In a high-profile sentencing that closed one major chapter of the investigation into the 2023 death of beloved *Friends* star Matthew Perry, a British-American drug trafficker known publicly as the “Ketamine Queen” has been sentenced to 15 years in federal prison for her role in supplying the ketamine that caused the actor’s fatal overdose.
Forty-two-year-old Jasveen Sangha, a dual U.K.-U.S. citizen, was one of five people charged in connection with Perry’s death, the 54-year-old actor who was found unresponsive in the hot tub of his luxury Los Angeles home in October 2023. Court documents detail that Sangha operated a large-scale illicit drug distribution ring out of her upscale Los Angeles apartment, intentionally targeting wealthy, high-profile clients in the heart of Hollywood’s entertainment industry.
Prosecutors emphasized in sentencing filings that Sangha deliberately built her brand as an exclusive supplier for A-list clientele, boasting to customers of her tight-knit VIP network of celebrity buyers. In a 2020 message to one customer, she wrote, “I’m really select with people, it’s a very VIP circle of celebs.”
The conspiracy that led to Perry’s death saw Sangha partner with middleman Erik Fleming to sell 50+ vials of ketamine to Kenneth Iwamasa, Perry’s live-in personal assistant. Court records confirm Iwamasa administered repeated injections of Sangha’s ketamine to Perry, including at least three separate doses on October 28, 2023—the same day the actor died of an overdose. Within hours of learning of Perry’s death from breaking news reports, Sangha attempted to cover up her involvement, ordering Fleming to “delete all our messages” to destroy evidence of their arrangement.
Prosecutors argued that Sangha’s actions reflected a deliberate disregard for human life, prioritizing illegal profits over the well-being of her customers. “She chose profits over people, and her actions have caused immense pain to the victims’ families and loved ones,” prosecutors wrote in their sentencing recommendation. When law enforcement raided Sangha’s home following Perry’s death, they seized a large cache of controlled substances including methamphetamine, ketamine, ecstasy, cocaine, and counterfeit Xanax, alongside drug trafficking equipment: a money counting machine, a digital scale, and electronic devices designed to detect hidden surveillance cameras and wireless bugs.
The investigation into Perry’s death uncovered a broader network of enablers who profited off the actor’s long-public struggle with addiction, including two medical professionals who violated their oaths to traffic drugs to Perry. Dr. Salvador Plasencia, who pleaded guilty to four counts of ketamine distribution connected to the case, was sentenced to 30 months in prison last year. A second physician, Dr. Mark Chavez, received a sentence of home confinement coupled with hundreds of hours of community service. Court records show Chavez supplied ketamine to Plasencia, who then resold it to Perry at exorbitant markups. In one text message, Plasencia wrote, “I wonder how much this moron will pay,” highlighting the callous exploitation of Perry’s addiction. Prosecutors confirmed Perry paid more than $2,000 per vial of ketamine, while his suppliers paid only a small fraction of that price for the drug.
Sangha pleaded guilty to a five-charge indictment, including one count of operating a drug-involved premises, three counts of ketamine distribution, and one count of distribution of ketamine resulting in death. Her guilty plea also acknowledged she supplied four vials of ketamine to 33-year-old Cody McLaury in August 2019; McLaury died of an overdose just hours after purchasing the drug from her.
For decades before his death, Perry spoke openly about his decades-long battle with substance use disorder. The actor, who found global fame and fortune playing sarcastic everyman Chandler Bing on the hit 1990s-2000s sitcom *Friends*, had long struggled with addiction to painkillers and alcohol, even as his role on the show made him a household name worldwide. In 2018, he suffered a life-threatening colon rupture linked to drug use that required multiple emergency surgeries. In his 2022 memoir *Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing*, Perry documented his experience going through detox more than 60 times, writing, “I have mostly been sober since 2001, save for about sixty or seventy little mishaps.” At the time of his death, colleagues told reporters Perry appeared to be managing his addiction and making progress in his recovery. He had originally been using ketamine as part of a physician-supervised therapy program for depression, but prosecutors confirmed he developed an addiction to the drug, which is used legally as an anesthetic and depression treatment but is also commonly misused as a psychedelic party drug.
The remaining co-defendants in the case—personal assistant Iwamasa and middleman Fleming—are scheduled to be sentenced later this month. Perry’s death triggered an outpouring of global grief from *Fans* across multiple generations who grew up watching the hit sitcom.