Get updates delivered to you daily. Free and customizable.
Los Angeles Magazine
"Ketamine Queen's" Drug Emporium in North Hollywood Raided Before Matthew Perry Death
By Michele McPhee,
24 days ago
The sophisticated drug dealing operation that led to the deaths of actor Matthew Pery and another man was centered at a North Hollywood stash house run by the "Ketamine Queen," a woman who lived lavishly off the backs of addicts even while out on bail.
Jasveen Sangha's text messages recovered by federal investigators claimed she would “only deal with high end and celeb” clients and called her home “Sangha’s Stash house." In March 2024, her stash house was raided by federal investigators who found an “emporium” of narcotics including 79 bottles of ketamine and 1,978 grams of methamphetamine as well as a handgun. But, she was released on $100,000 bail posted by her mother, according to court records, and continued to deal drugs, prosecutors say, including the ketamine that killed the actor.
"Although she also sold methamphetamine and other drugs like magic mushrooms, defendant’s specialty was ketamine, which she routinely sold, holding herself out as a celebrity drug dealer with high quality goods," federal prosecutors wrote in a court filing. "There are troubling signs that defendant may be continuing to deal drugs while on pretrial release."
They pointed to Sangha's lack of employment, the extravagant rent at the North Hollywood home she used as the stash house and a new lease on her 2024 BMW. In July, prosecutors say, was was brazen enough to post an apparent reference to magic mushrooms that she had for sale on her Instagram page. At her arraignment Thursday, Sangha was held without bail, which will force her to trade her designer clothes for a prison jumpsuit.
Prosecutors say Sangha provided 25 vials of ketamine to Perry on October 24, four days before his death, and previously boasted of the drug being “high quality”, adding: “It’s unmarked but it’s amazing.” The drugs were then injected into the actor by his longtime live-in assistant, Kenneth Iwamasa, prosecutors said.
When Perry died, Sangha messaged one of her alleged co-conspirators, the actor's pal Erik Fleming, saying: “delete all our messages." Two days after Perry's death, Fleming told Sangha in a text that he “got more info,” and that he was “90% sure that everyone is protected.” The two then conspired to frame the assistant Iwamasa, prosecutors say.
Fleming also told the Sangha investigators were “doing a 3 month tox screening,” and asked her: “Does K stay in your system or is it immediately flushed out," prosecutors say.
Fleming, Iwamasa, Sangha, and two physicians were all part of what prosecutors are now calling a sprawling criminal network that exploited the actor's drug problem. Two doctors, Santa Monica physician Salvador "Dr. P" Plasencia and La Jolla ketamine clinic operator Mark Chavez, are charged in a conspiracy to make money off Perry while moonlighting as illegal drug dealers. In one text, Plasencia wrote: "I wonder how much this moron will pay." To which Chavez responded, "Let's find out."
Chavez then wrote a prescription for ketamine for one of his real patients, who had no idea, to obtain the drug to give to Plasencia, prosecutors say. Plasencia sold the ketamine, codenamed "Dr. Pepper," to Fleming on Santa Monica's Third Street Promenade, according to court records.
And they all continued to provide Perry the drug even after he nearly died on Oct. 12, 2023 - days before he was found unresponsive in his Pacific Palisades hot tub on Oct. 28. "Let's not do that again," Plasencia wrote to Iwamasa after a large dose caused a "significant spike to Victim M.P.’s systolic blood pressure and causing him to freeze up, such that Victim M.P. could not speak or move," prosecutors say.
Perry is not believed to be Sangha's only victim. On Aug. 19, 2019, Cody McLaury died of a overdose. Days later, McLaury's sister texted Sangha: “The ketamine you sold my brother killed him. It’s listed as the cause of death.” After receiving that message, prosecutors say, Sangha conducted a Google search for “can ketamine be listed as a cause of death[?]”
Get updates delivered to you daily. Free and customizable.
It’s essential to note our commitment to transparency:
Our Terms of Use acknowledge that our services may not always be error-free, and our Community Standards emphasize our discretion in enforcing policies. As a platform hosting over 100,000 pieces of content published daily, we cannot pre-vet content, but we strive to foster a dynamic environment for free expression and robust discourse through safety guardrails of human and AI moderation.
Comments / 0