Five individuals have been charged in connection with the 2023 death of actor Matthew Perry, according to the US Attorney’s Office.

The charges, announced Thursday morning at a press conference in Los Angeles, come after investigators say they uncovered an underground network of drug sellers and suppliers they allege are responsible for distributing the ketamine, a potentially deadly drug, that killed Perry.

The defendants include two doctors, Perry’s live-in personal assistant and a person referred to by authorities as “The Ketamine Queen,” according to a press release from the US Attorney’s office.

US Attorney Martin Estrada said the defendants “took advantage of Mr. Perry’s addiction issues.”

“They knew what they were doing was wrong,” Estrada said.

Three of the five charged have reached a plea agreement.

The other two defendants are Dr. Salvador Plasencia, of Santa Monica, California, and Jasveen Sangha, who Estrada said ran what amounted to “a drug selling emporium” in her home, were indicted on Wednesday, the US Attorney said.

  • @[email protected]OPMEnglish
    2•3 months ago

    More:

    LOS ANGELES — “Friends” actor Matthew Perry was experiencing an out-of-control ketamine addiction, injecting the drug six to eight times a day, before his accidental overdose death, prosecutors say.

    …

    In court documents filed Thursday, federal prosecutors accuse Plasencia of telling a patient that Perry was “too far gone and spiraling in his addiction” the week before he died but that he still offered to sell Perry ketamine through Iwamasa anyway.

    …

    According to prosecutors, Perry had been seeking out unsupervised doses of the controlled substance and had developed an “out of control” dependence on it. Ketamine, an anesthetic with psychedelic properties, is a popular party drug that has recently been found to be a promising alternative treatment for some mental illnesses but carries serious medical risks.

    Perry, 54, was found face down in the heated end of a pool at his Pacific Palisades home on Oct. 28. When he died, the levels of ketamine in his body were high — equivalent to the amount used for general anesthesia during surgery, according to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner’s Office.

    …

    Perry paid Plasencia — through his assistant — at least $55,000 for ketamine in the month before he died, Iwamasa’s plea agreement says. Fleming was paid about $12,000 for two deals, one of them just days before Perry died.

    NBC via Yahoo

    • @[email protected]English
      2•3 months ago

      I feel like you can order a kilo of ketamine online for about $2500. Even if you don’t buy wholesale, it’s not really an expensive drug. Either he was being ripped off or that was a hell of a habit

        • @[email protected]English
          2•3 months ago

          Hmm valid. I guess there’s also a service aspect. I later read he didn’t even buy himself, but an assistant did it. Who knows how far gone the dude was at the time

        • AwkwardLookMonkeyPuppetEnglish
          2•3 months ago

          He was worth around $80 million, and he couldn’t go to many of the places that ordinary people could go. That amount of money was trivial for him.

    • AliceMEnglish
      0•3 months ago

      It was ketamine. We’re probably not hearing about it until now, bc it was an active investigation