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Who is the ‘Ketamine Queen’ charged over Matthew Perry’s death?

Jasveen Sangha allegedly sourced ketamine for Matthew Perry.

Jasveen Sangha allegedly sourced ketamine for Matthew Perry. Photo: Getty/Supplied

Details have emerged about the glamorous party-loving “Ketamine Queen” accused of supplying the powerful sedative to actor Matthew Perry.

Jasveen Sangha, 41, two doctors and Perry’s personal assistant have been charged with supplying the Friends star with large quantities of ketamine.

The American-British dual-national’s social media accounts reveal the extravagant jet-setting lifestyle she led, reportedly rubbing shoulders with celebrities at functions like the Oscars.

The indictment against Sangha claims that the only clients she dealt with were “high end and celebs”, based on information from her co-accused.

She had turned her luxury home in North Hollywood, Los Angeles, into a “drug-selling emporium”, according to Martin Estrada, the US attorney for California’s Central District.

Sangha has pleaded not guilty and was refused bail.

Jasveen Sangha

Jasveen Sangha showed off an extravagant lifestyle on social media. Photo: Supplied

Perry was found dead in his hot tub on October 28, 2023. In the weeks leading up to his tragic passing, the troubled actor had been undergoing weeks of ketamine therapy to deal with depression.

Sangha is accused of supplying Perry’s personal assistant Kenneth Iwamasa with ketamine beginning in October 2023.

Prosecutors claim Sangha supplied the drugs which were sourced from fellow defendant Dr Mark Chavez through another co-accused Dr Salvador Plasencia.

She allegedly learned through Plasencia that the actor was trying to get hold of the drug.

It’s alleged Plasencia taught another co-accused, Perry’s long-time assistant who lived with the actor, how to inject him with the sedative.

“These defendants cared more about profiting off of Mr Perry than caring for his well-being,” said Estrada.

Jasveen Sangha

Jasveen Sangha and her co-accused were more interested in profiting off Matthew Perry, say prosecutors. Photo: Supplied

The accused were part of “a broad underground criminal network” that distributed the drug to the actor and others, Estrada said.

“These defendants took advantage of Mr Perry’s addiction issues to enrich themselves,” Estrada said at a news conference in Los Angeles on Friday (AEST).

Each defendant played a role in falsely prescribing, selling or injecting the ketamine that contributed to the actor’s death, Anne Milgram, administrator of the US Drug Enforcement Administration, said.

Perry died at age 54 from “acute effects” of ketamine and other factors that caused him to lose consciousness and drown in his hot tub last October, an autopsy said.

For months, Los Angeles homicide detectives and federal agents have been investigating how Perry obtained the prescription drug.

A December 2023 autopsy report concluded Perry died from the “acute effects of ketamine,” which combined with other factors caused him to lose consciousness and slip below the water in the hot tub at his Los Angeles home.

Toxicology tests found Perry’s body contained dangerously high levels of ketamine, a short-acting anaesthetic with hallucinogenic properties.

Typically, people with that much ketamine in their systems are in general anaesthesia during surgery, and being monitored by professionals, they said.

Other contributing factors in his death were drowning, coronary artery disease and the effects of the opioid-addiction medicine buprenorphine, which was also detected in his system.

Perry had publicly acknowledged decades of drug and alcohol abuse, including during the years he starred as Chandler Bing on the hit 1990s television sitcom Friends.

Witness interviews in the autopsy report said he had been undergoing ketamine infusion therapy for depression and anxiety.

But his last known treatment was a week and a half before his death, so the ketamine found in his system by medical examiners would have been introduced since that last infusion, the autopsy said.

-with AAP

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