Who is 'Ketamine Queen' of Los Angeles Jasveen Sangha?

LOS ANGELES - Officials on Thursday announced five people have been charged in connection with the ketamine overdose death of "Friends" star Matthew Perry.

The five people are identified as the so-called "Ketamine Queen of Los Angeles" Jasveen Sangha, Perry's personal assistant Kenneth Iwamasa, two doctors - Dr. Salvador Plasencia and Dr. Mark Chavez, and a personal acquaintance of Perry's, Erik Fleming. 

Sangha, 41, is charged with providing the ketamine that caused Perry's fatal overdose on Oct. 28, as well as the overdose death of another man, according to an 18-page indictment.

Sangha apparently earned the nickname "Ketamine Queen" for allegedly selling ketamine and meth out of her North Hollywood "stash house" as early as June 2019, oftentimes to Hollywood celebrities.

The indictment said Sangha continued to sell the drugs until she was arrested March 19 for selling meth in a prior unrelated case. She had been out on bond since March. 

Sangha used her "stash house" to "store, package, and distribute narcotics, including providing ketamine to co-conspirator [Erik] Fleming so that co-conspirator Fleming could sell it to Victim M.P.," the indictment said, referring to Perry. 

Prosecutors said Sangha allegedly provided Fleming with 50 vials of the drug in two separate deals in October. Fleming then gave them to Perry. 

The indictment alleges that on Oct. 13, Sangha provided Fleming with a sample of ketamine in an unmarked clear glass vial with a blue cap for Perry. Fleming allegedly drove to Sangha's home to pick up the vial, then drove it to Perry's home. 

The next day, Fleming returned to Sangha's home to pick up 25 vials of the drug and delivered them to Perry's home, according to court documents.

On Oct. 23, Fleming picked up $6,000 cash from Perry's home to pay Sangha, the indictment alleges, and he went to Sangha's home the next day to exchange the cash for another 25 vials of the drug.

Sangha even threw in complimentary "ketamine lollipops" with Perry’s order because of how large it was, the indictment read.

"I never thought something like this would happen with my next door neighbor," a neighbor of Sangha said. 

That neighbor told FOX 11 that they noticed occasional "red flags".

"There were always people going in and out of the apartment carrying briefcases and stuff so we knew something was kind of off."

DEA Administrator Anne Milgram said in one instance the actor paid $2,000 for a vial of ketamine that cost one of the physicians about $12. Perry paid the doctors about $55,000 in cash in the two months before his death.

That same day, Fleming dropped the drug at Perry's home, prosecutors allege, where Perry's live-in personal assistant, Iwamasa, injected "6 shots" of the drug to the actor. 

Two days later, Sangha messaged Fleming asking if he’d be purchasing more of the drug because she and her drug source — whom she referred to as "the scientist" and "master chef" — would be out of town, prosecutors said. 

According to court documents, Iwamasa continued to give Perry at least six doses a day on Oct. 25, 26, and 27 before administering the final three fatal doses on Oct. 28. 

Iwamasa found the actor face down in his hot tub, and paramedics who were called immediately declared him dead.

As news spread of Perry's death, Sangha contacted Fleming to delete their Signal messages and changed the messaging app setting to automatically delete her messages.

"Delete all our messages," Sangha wrote. He replied "yes."

According to the indictment, Sangha is also charged for her role in the August 2019 ketamine overdose death of Cody McLaury.

Prosecutors allege the day MccLaury died, his family member texted Sangha telling her the ketamine she sold him killed him.

"Within days of receiving this text, defendant Sangha confirmed that ketamine can kill by conducting a Google search for ‘can ketamine be listed as a cause of?'" according to court documents.

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Sangha is charged with conspiracy to distribute ketamine, maintaining a drug-involved premises, possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine, possession with intent to distribute ketamine, and five counts of distribution of ketamine.

If convicted on all counts, Sangha faces life in prison.

Ketamine has seen a huge surge in use in recent years as a treatment for depression, anxiety and pain. While the drug isn’t approved for those conditions, doctors are free to prescribe drugs for so-called off-label uses.

Perry had been receiving regular ketamine infusion treatments for depression — in amounts not nearly enough to account for his death — from his regular doctors, who were not among those charged, authorities said.

When those doctors refused to give him more, he went in desperation to others.

Perry had years of struggles with addiction dating back to his time on "Friends," when he became one of the biggest television stars of his generation as Chandler Bing alongside Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc and David Schwimmer for 10 seasons from 1994 to 2004 on NBC’s megahit sitcom.

Perry’s autopsy, released in December, found that the amount of ketamine in his blood was in the range used for general anesthesia during surgery.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.