Jasveen Sangha, the woman authorities have accused of supplying the ketamine that actor Matthew Perry died from using, is said to have had an extensive network for distributing the drug, but little is known about the woman police say is known as “the ketamine queen.”
Sangha, according to the Department of Justice, which held a press conference about the investigation on Thursday, “took advantage of Mr. Perry by selling large amounts of ketamine to Mr. Perry over a two-week period in October of 2023,” and “sold approximately 50 vials of ketamine for approximately $11,000.” Working together with urgent care doctor Salvador Plasencia, a “broker” named Erik Fleming, and Perry’s live-in assistant Kenneth Iwamasa (who would inject Perry with the drug himself), Sangha “took advantage” of Perry’s relapse, according to authorities. A second doctor, Mark Chavez, was also charged.
A search of Sangha’s home uncovered a “drug -selling emporium,” they also said, which housed “80 vials of ketamine, thousands of pills containing methamphetamine, cocaine, bottles of Xanax and other illegally obtained prescription drugs.” According to The Daily Mail, Sangha was living well off that emporium.
The site reports that the “ketamine queen” had been bragging about lavish vacations, like to Playa del Carmen, Mexico, where she showed off her beachfront home and posted photos of herself lounging by the pool. The site also reports that Sangha took another trip, this time to Tokyo, just two weeks after Perry’s death—where she stayed in an expensive hotel that likely cost over $1,800 a night.
Sangha was aware that her sales had caused Perry’s death, authorities noted on Thursday, as she’d texted Fleming to “Delete all our messages,” following the news of the actor’s death. To make matters worse, Sangha has been accused of causing another death—that of Cody McLaury in 2019—after she’d also sold him ketamine.
Authorities said that after a family member of McLaury’s told Sangha that it was ketamine that had killed him, she continued to sell the drug—and in October 2023, she sold the doses that would result in Perry’s death. The Daily Mail reports that Sangha googled whether ketamine could be listed as a cause of death after McLaury died, indicating that she was aware she could be criminally liable not only for drug distribution, but also for his death.
Though Sangha is just one of five people arrested and charged in connection with Perry’s death, she, along with the Plasencia, is a “lead defendant,” in the case, authorities said.
