Two doctors and three others including Matthew Perry's personal assistant were charged Thursday with supplying the “Friends” star with large amounts of ketamine, a powerful sedative that led to Perry's death nearly a year ago, authorities said.
The defendants, including a woman known in Los Angeles as the “Ketamine Queen,” were part of a “vast underground criminal network” that distributed drugs to the actor and others, U.S. Attorney Martin Estrada said.
“These defendants exploited Mr. Perry’s addiction problems to enrich themselves,” Estrada said at a news conference in Los Angeles.
Each defendant played a role in prescribing, selling or injecting the ketamine that caused the actor's death, said Anne Milgram, head of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).
Two of them have been arrested and are scheduled to appear in court Thursday night. They are Jasveen Sangha, 41, of North Hollywood and Dr. Salvador Plasencia, 42, of Santa Monica.
Perry died at age 54 from the “acute effects” of ketamine and other factors that caused him to lose consciousness and drown in a hot tub last October, according to an autopsy. For months, Los Angeles homicide detectives and federal agents have been investigating how Perry obtained the prescription drug. (about/after)
