Central District of California | Five defendants, including two doctors, charged in connection with actor Matthew Perry's fatal drug overdose last year

LOS ANGELES A licensed physician and an alleged drug dealer from the San Fernando Valley were arrested today in connection with the death of actor Matthew Perry, who suffered a fatal ketamine overdose in October 2023.

A total of five defendants, including two doctors, have been charged in the case, according to court documents released today.

The defendants arrested today are accused in an 18-count indictment returned Wednesday of distributing ketamine to Perry during the final weeks of the actor's life:

Jasveen Sangha, 41, aka The Ketamine Queen, of North Hollywood; and Dr. Salvador Plasence, 42; P, of Sainte Monique.

Sangha and Plasencia are charged with one count of conspiracy to distribute ketamine. Sangha is also charged with one count of maintaining a drug premises, one count of possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine, one count of possession with intent to distribute ketamine and five counts of distribution of ketamine.

The superseding indictment alleges that Sanghas’ distribution of ketamine on October 24, 2023, caused Perrys’ deaths. Plasencia is charged with seven counts of ketamine distribution and two counts of altering and falsifying documents or records related to the federal investigation.

Sangha and Plasencia are expected to be arraigned later today in U.S. District Court in downtown Los Angeles.

“These defendants were more concerned with profiting from Mr. Perry than with his well-being,” said U.S. Attorney Martin Estrada. “Drug traffickers who sell dangerous substances gamble with the lives of others out of greed. This case, and our many other prosecutions of drug traffickers who cause deaths, send a clear message: We will hold drug traffickers accountable for the deaths they cause.”

“Bringing these individuals to justice for their role in Mr. Perry’s untimely death took the coordination and hard work of a number of people, and I want to thank LAPD detectives and our federal partners for their patience and dedication,” said LAPD Chief Dominic Choi. “As frontline officers in our communities, LAPD officers witness firsthand the harm these drugs can cause every day, so I am pleased that our collective efforts led to the arrest of these individuals.”

“Today, we are announcing charges against the five individuals who, together, are responsible for Matthew Perry’s death,” said DEA Administrator Anne Milgram. “We assert that each of the defendants played a key role in his death by falsely prescribing, selling, or injecting the ketamine that caused Matthew Perry’s tragic death. Matthew Perry’s journey began with unscrupulous doctors who abused their positions of trust because they saw it as a payday, and street dealers who gave him ketamine in unmarked vials. Every day, DEA works tirelessly with our federal, state, and local partners to protect the public and hold accountable those who distribute deadly and dangerous drugs, from local drug dealers to doctors who violate their oath to care for patients.

The three other defendants charged separately are:

Erik Fleming, 54, of Hawthorne, who pleaded guilty Aug. 8 to one count of conspiracy to distribute ketamine and one count of distribution of ketamine resulting in death. Fleming admitted in court documents to distributing the ketamine that killed Perry. He further admitted to obtaining the ketamine from his source, Sangha, and distributing 50 vials of ketamine to Perry’s personal assistant, Kenneth Iwamasa, half of them four days before Perry’s death. Kenneth Iwamasa, 59, of Toluca Lake, who conspired with Sangha, Fleming and Plasencia to illegally obtain ketamine and distribute it to Perry. Iwamasa, who pleaded guilty on Aug. 7 to one count of conspiracy to distribute ketamine resulting in death, admitted to repeatedly injecting Perry with ketamine without medical training, including performing multiple injections on Perry on Oct. 28, 2023, the day Perry died. Dr. Mark Chavez, 54, of San Diego, is a physician who agreed to plead guilty to one count of conspiracy to distribute ketamine. Chavez admitted in his plea agreement to selling ketamine to Plasencia, including ketamine he diverted from his former ketamine clinic. Chavez also obtained additional ketamine to transfer to Plasencia by making false statements to a wholesale ketamine distributor and submitting a fraudulent prescription in the name of a former patient without the patient’s knowledge or consent.

According to the superseding indictment unsealed today, Plasencia learned in late September 2023 that Perry, a successful actor with a well-documented history of drug abuse, wanted to obtain ketamine. Ketamine is a general anesthetic whose medical risks require that a medical professional monitor a patient who had just received the drug.

After learning of Perry’s interest in ketamine, Plasencia contacted Chavez, who previously ran a ketamine clinic, to obtain ketamine to sell to Perry. In text messages to Chavez, Plasencia discussed how much to charge Perry for the ketamine, stating, “I wonder how much this idiot is going to pay and let’s see.” [sic] discover.

In September and October 2023, Plasencia distributed ketamine to Perry and Iwamasa outside the usual course of professional practice and without a legitimate medical purpose on at least seven occasions. He did this by teaching Iwamasa how to inject Perry with ketamine, selling ketamine to Iwamasa to inject Perry with, leaving vials of ketamine for Iwamasa to administer to himself, personally injecting Perry with ketamine without proper safety equipment, including once inside a car parked in a Long Beach parking lot, and failing to properly supervise Perry after Plasencia injected him with the drug. Plasencia knew that Iwamasa had no prior medical training and knew little, if anything, about administering or treating patients with controlled substances.

The superseded indictment also alleges that Plasencia conspired with Chavez regarding the supply, price, and availability of ketamine for sale to Perry and Iwamasa. Chavez, in turn, sold Plasencia oral ketamine lozenges that he obtained after writing a fraudulent prescription in a patient’s name without her knowledge or consent, and lied to wholesale ketamine distributors to purchase additional vials of liquid ketamine that Chavez intended to sell to Plasencia for distribution to Perry.

Beginning in mid-October 2023, Iwamasa also began obtaining ketamine for Perry from Fleming and Sangha. After discussing prices with Iwamasa, Fleming coordinated drug sales with Sangha and brought money from Iwamasa to Sangha’s North Hollywood stash house to purchase vials of ketamine. On October 24, 2023, while waiting for Sangha’s ketamine to arrive, Fleming informed Iwamasa that the ketamine was on its way to our daughter, referring to Sangha. Sangha has been distributing ketamine and other illegal drugs from his North Hollywood stash house since at least 2019.

Sangha was aware of the dangers of ketamine: In August 2019, Sangha sold ketamine to his victim Cody McLaury in the hours before he died from an overdose. After a family member of McLaury texted Sangha that his ketamine had killed McLaury, Sangha did a Google search to see if ketamine could be listed as a cause of death.[?] The superseding indictment alleges that Sangha nevertheless continued to sell ketamine from his stash.

Using instructions and syringes provided by Plasencia, Iwamasa injected Perry with ketamine that Fleming and Sangha had sold him, including on October 28, 2023, when Perry died at his Pacific Palisades home after receiving multiple ketamine injections. Plasencia sold the ketamine to Iwamasa despite being informed at least a week earlier that Perry’s ketamine addiction was spiraling out of control. After Perry’s death was reported in the media, Sangha texted Fleming: Delete all our messages.

Following Perry's death, federal agents and Los Angeles Police Department detectives executed search warrants at Sangha's home, where they found evidence of drug trafficking, including approximately 79 vials of ketamine, approximately 1.4 kilograms (3.1 pounds) of orange pills containing methamphetamine, psilocybin mushrooms, cocaine, and prescription medications that appeared to have been obtained fraudulently.

In February and March 2024, in response to a legal request for production of documents as part of the federal investigation, Plasencia provided altered and falsified medical records, purporting to show that he had implemented a legitimate treatment plan for Perry, in an effort to influence the investigation into Perry's death.

“The partnership between the U.S. Postal Inspection Service and state and federal law enforcement agencies, along with the support of the U.S. Attorney’s Office, demonstrates our continued commitment to protecting communities from the harm caused by the illicit distribution and misuse of dangerous drugs,” said Matthew Shields, Acting Inspector in Charge of the Los Angeles Division. “We will continue to work diligently to bring justice to the families impacted by these types of crimes.”

An indictment is merely an allegation. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.

If convicted on all counts, Sangha faces a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years in federal prison and a statutory maximum sentence of life in prison. Plasencia faces up to 10 years in federal prison for each ketamine-related count and up to 20 years in federal prison for each count of falsifying records.

Iwamasa and Fleming face up to 15 and 25 years in prison, respectively, when sentenced in their federal cases.

Chavez was charged in a plea deal and will be arraigned Aug. 30. At sentencing, Chavez faces up to 10 years in federal prison.

The Los Angeles Police Department, the Drug Enforcement Administration and the United States Postal Inspection Service are investigating the case.

Assistant United States Attorneys Ian V. Yanniello of the General Crimes Section and Haoxiaohan H. Cai of the Major Frauds Section are prosecuting this case.

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