A federal judge sentenced Jasveen Sangha, the drug dealer known as "the Ketamine Queen", to 15 years in prison for supplying the ketamine that killed actor Matthew Perry. United States District Judge Sherilyn Peace Garnett handed down the sentence, matching the term prosecutors had recommended.

Sangha is the third of five defendants to be sentenced in connection with Perry's death. She agreed to plead guilty in August 2025 to five federal criminal charges, avoiding a trial that had been set for September, Fox News Digital reported.

The charges included one count of maintaining a drug-involved premises, three counts of distribution of ketamine, and one count of distribution of ketamine resulting in death or serious bodily injury. Prosecutors dropped three other ketamine distribution counts unrelated to Perry's case and one count of distribution of methamphetamine.

A drug operation run out of a rented home

The Department of Justice laid out the scope of Sangha's operation in a press release. Prosecutors said she ran her business for years out of a rented house in North Hollywood, a property she secured specifically for manufacturing, storing, and distributing controlled substances, according to the indictment.

The DOJ press release stated:

"For years...Sangha operated a high-volume drug trafficking business out of her North Hollywood residence."

Prosecutors went further, describing a dealer who knew her clientele and knew the risks she was imposing on them. The DOJ press release also stated:

"To cultivate her business, [Sangha] marketed herself as an exclusive dealer who catered to high-profile Hollywood clientele...While [Sangha] worked to expand and profit from her drug trafficking, she knew, and disregarded, the grave harm her conduct was causing."

That framing, a dealer who "marketed herself" to wealthy, famous clients and built a lifestyle on the proceeds, tells you everything about the incentives at work. This was not a street-corner operation. It was a business model built on access, discretion, and Hollywood money.

Perry's final days

Matthew Perry died on Oct. 28, 2023, at his Los Angeles home. He was found dead in the hot tub of his Pacific Palisades residence after an apparent drowning. Authorities traced the fatal drug supply chain back to Sangha's network.

Eric Fleming, who worked as a middleman for Sangha, allegedly delivered 25 vials of ketamine on Oct. 14 and another 25 vials on Oct. 24. Perry's assistant, Kenneth Iwamasa, then injected Perry six to eight times a day between Oct. 24 and Oct. 27, authorities said. Perry was dead the next morning.

The sheer volume, 50 vials in two deliveries over ten days, followed by as many as eight injections daily, paints a grim picture of how far the supply chain reached into Perry's home. The actor, best known for his role on "Friends," had spoken publicly about his struggles with addiction. The people around him, from the dealer to the doctor to his own assistant, fed that addiction instead of stopping it.

In cases like these, federal law enforcement has shown it can pursue high-profile criminal networks when the political will exists. The Perry case proved no different.

Five defendants, a web of enablers

Sangha did not act alone. Five people in total were charged in connection with Perry's death: Sangha, Dr. Salvador Plasencia, Fleming, Iwamasa, and Dr. Mark Chavez. Iwamasa, Fleming, and Chavez all agreed to plea deals in 2024. Dr. Plasencia pleaded guilty in July 2025 to four counts of distribution of the dissociative drug.

Two doctors. A personal assistant. A middleman. A dealer who rented a house to run her operation. That is not a tragedy of one bad actor, it is a supply chain of negligence and profit, each link aware of the danger and each link choosing money or convenience over a man's life.

The involvement of licensed physicians is particularly damning. Doctors hold positions of trust and legal authority over controlled substances. When they become links in a drug distribution chain that ends in a patient's death, the system that credentialed them deserves scrutiny too.

A second death tied to Sangha

Perry was not the only person to die after buying ketamine from Sangha. As part of her plea agreement, Sangha admitted to selling four vials of ketamine to another man, Cody McLaury, who had no relationship to Perry. McLaury died from an overdose in 2019, hours after the sale.

That admission is striking. Sangha knew as early as 2019 that her product could kill. She kept selling. Prosecutors argued the operation "paid for her lifestyle," and the timeline supports that characterization. Between McLaury's death in 2019 and Perry's death in October 2023, Sangha's business apparently continued without interruption.

Four years separated the two deaths. Four years during which, prosecutors allege, Sangha expanded her operation and cultivated her Hollywood clientele. The consequences of that unchecked dealing landed squarely on Perry's doorstep.

A stepfather's words in court

Perry's stepfather, journalist Keith Morrison, addressed the court during the proceedings. His remarks, reported by The New York Times, were measured but direct:

"I feel bad for you Miss Sangha. I don't hate you. You are a drug dealer."

Morrison's restraint made the statement land harder than anger would have. No rage. No theatrics. Just a plain description of what Sangha was and what she did.

What accountability looks like

Sangha's 15-year sentence sends a clear message: if you supply drugs that kill people, federal prosecutors will treat you like the dealer you are, regardless of your zip code or your clientele's fame. The fact that all five defendants pleaded guilty, none successfully fought the charges at trial, suggests the government built an airtight case.

The plea agreement spared Sangha the risk of a longer sentence at trial but locked in a substantial prison term. Prosecutors got the sentence they asked for, and the judge agreed.

Open questions remain. Sangha's attorneys argued about the conditions of her indictment while she was in jail in 2024, though the full scope of their sentencing arguments is not publicly detailed. Whether the dropped charges, three ketamine counts and one methamphetamine count, reflect prosecutorial strategy or gaps in the case is unclear.

What is clear is the outcome. A dealer who ran a drug operation out of a rented North Hollywood home, who sold to Hollywood clients, who kept selling after one customer died, now faces 15 years in a federal prison cell. Two doctors, an assistant, and a middleman also face consequences for their roles.

Perry's death exposed a network that thrived on access, secrecy, and the willingness of people in positions of trust, doctors, assistants, dealers, to look the other way while a man spiraled. The federal system, to its credit, did not look the other way.

Accountability arrived late for Matthew Perry. But for the five people who helped supply the drugs that ended his life, it arrived.