Matthew Perry’s personal assistant and the ‘Ketamine Queen of Los Angeles’ are among five people arrested in connection with the death of the Friends star last fall, attributed to a drug overdose. The assistant and Perry’s friend, Erik Fleming and Jasveen Sangha, an alleged drug dealer prosecutors claim was known as the ‘Ketamine Queen of Los Angeles’ were arrested alongside Kenneth Iwamasa, Dr. Mark Chavez, and Dr. Salvador Plasencia. All are facing a slew of federal charges, including conspiracy to distribute ketamine, as first reported by the New York Times, citing documents filed by the Central District of California. “These defendants took advantage of Mr. Perry’s addiction issues to enrich themselves. They knew what they were doing was wrong,” US Attorney Martin Estrada said at a press conference in LA announcing the charges Thursday morning. Perry, 54, was found floating face down in the hot tub at his Pacific Palisades home by his assistant on October 28, 2023. He was declared dead by the paramedics called to the scene. “Perry’s cause of death was attributed to the acute effects of the anesthetic ketamine,” reports the New York Post, adding “at the time of his death, the actor had about 3.54 micrograms per milliliter of ketamine in his bloodstream, which is nearly three times the normal amount.” Perry, who did not hide his fight with mental illness and addiction, was undergoing ketamine therapy for depression, but he had last been treated over a week before he died, according to the autopsy report. The drug in Perry’s system could not have been from his treatment, because ketamine’s half-life is only three to four hours, the coroner said. “Dr. Plasencia, who worked at an urgent care center, allegedly helped Perry procure additional ketamine despite knowing about his history of drug abuse, according to the indictment,” reports the Post. The New York Times reports that on September 30, 2023 Plasencia supposedly texted Dr. Chavez about getting ketamine for Perry, who is identified in the indictment by the initials ‘M.P.’ “I wonder how much this moron will pay,” Plasencia allegedly wrote to Chavez. It’s reported Perry was paying US$2,000 for a package of ketamine that cost the doctors US$12 per package. In May, Los Angeles authorities announced they had partnered with the DEA and the US Postal Service to investigate who may have illegally prescribed the ketamine Perry was using when he died. Law enforcement “executed search warrants and seized computers, phones and other electronic equipment” as part of the investigation, according to TMZ. The search warrant also reportedly revealed text messages discussing Perry and arranging to get ketamine to him. Perry wrote about his years-long battle with substance abuse in his 2022 memoir, Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing, revealing in the book that he received ketamine infusions while in a Swiss rehab clinic during the pandemic. “Ketamine was a very popular street drug in the 1980s. There is a synthetic form of it now, and it’s used for two reasons: to ease pain and help with depression,” he wrote, adding, “Has my name written all over it, they might as well have called it ‘Matty.’“ In the book, Perry described the drug as a “giant exhale,” and explained he would “disassociate” during his infusions and often felt as if he were “dying.”
