'Ketamine Queen' to plead guilty to supplying dose of drug which killed Matthew Perry

A drug dealer dubbed the "Ketamine Queen" is set to plead guilty to supplying the drugs which ultimately killed Friends star Matthew Perry. Jasveen Sangha, 42, has struck a plea deal with prosecutors just weeks before her trial, making her the fifth and final defendant to avoid court.

She agreed to plead guilty to five federal charges, including supplying the powerful anaesthetic ketamine that led to Perry's tragic death at his Los Angeles mansion in October 2023. The actor, 54, was found unresponsive in his hot tub. Prosecutors had cast Sangha, a 42-year-old citizen of the US and the UK, as a prolific drug dealer who admitted in the agreement to selling four vials of ketamine to another man, Cody McLaury, hours before he died from an overdose in 2019. McLaury had no previous relationship with Perry.

Prosecutors will drop three other counts related to the distribution of ketamine, and one count of distribution of methamphetamine that was unrelated to the Perry case.

Sangha will officially change her plea to guilty at an upcoming hearing, where sentencing will be scheduled, prosecutors said. She could get up to 45 years in prison. An email sent to Sangha's lawyers seeking comment was not immediately answered when sent by PA.

She and Dr Salvador Plasencia, who signed his plea deal on June 16, had been the primary targets of the investigation.
Perry was found dead in his Los Angeles home by Iwamasa, his assistant, on October 28, 2023. The medical examiner ruled that ketamine, typically used as a surgical anaesthetic, was the primary cause of death.

The actor had been using the drug through his regular doctor as a legal, but off-label, treatment for depression, which has become increasingly common.

Perry, 54, sought more ketamine than his doctor would give him. He began getting it from Plasencia about a month before his death, then started getting still more from Sangha about two weeks before his death, prosecutors said. Perry and Iwamasa found Sangha through Perry's friend Fleming. In their plea agreements, both men described the subsequent deals in detail.

Fleming messaged Iwamasa saying Sangha's ketamine was "unmarked but it's amazing," according to court documents. Fleming texted Iwamasa that she only deals with high-end and celebs. If it were not great stuff, she'd lose her business. With the two men acting as middlemen, Perry bought large amounts of ketamine from Sangha, including 25 vials for $6,000 in cash four days before his death. That purchase included the doses that killed Perry, prosecutors said.

On the day of Perry's death, Sangha told Fleming they should delete all the messages they had sent each other, according to her indictment. None of the defendants has yet been sentenced