Five people have been arrested and charged with supplying “Friends” star Matthew Perry with the ketamine that killed him last October, authorities said Thursday. According to federal court records, Perry’s assistant, Kenneth Iwamasa, and Perry’s acquaintance, Erik Fleming, worked with two doctors, Salvador Plasencia and Mark Chavez, to obtain large quantities of ketamine for Perry in the run-up to his overdose death. Jasveen Sangha, the “Ketamine Queen,” is also charged with supplying Perry with the drug, according to U.S. Attorney E. Martin Estrada.
First responders found Perry, 54, unresponsive in the hot tub of his Pacific Palisades home on Oct. 28, 2023. The actor was pronounced dead at the scene. After a medical examiner ruled his death an accident last year, Perry’s death was deemed a closed case. But nearly seven months later, an investigation has opened at both the federal and local levels into who gave the Friends actor the ketamine that caused his death.
An initial toxicology report from December 2023 confirmed that Perry had died from “acute effects of ketamine,” which caused him to drown in the warm waters. Sources close to the actor claimed that he was undergoing ketamine infusion therapy to treat depression and anxiety. However, his last infusion took place a week and a half before his death. The coroner noted that the ketamine present in Perry’s system “could not have come from that infusion therapy, as the half-life of ketamine is three to four hours, or less.”