She was called “the queen of ketamine.”
Authorities say Sangha sold ketamine — aka “Dr Pepper” — in unmarked clear glass bottles and touted it via Signal messages as high-quality. She reportedly referred to her source as a “master chef” and a “scientist.”
“She only deals with[s] “With high-end celebrities,” someone in her network allegedly texted a potential buyer. “If it wasn’t good stuff, she’d lose her business.”
One of Sangha’s most famous clients, federal prosecutors said Thursday, was Matthew Perry. Authorities say she sold the actor about 50 vials of the drug for $11,000 — including the batch that led to his death on Oct. 28 at age 54.
U.S. Attorney Martin Estrada said an investigation uncovered “a vast, clandestine criminal network” responsible for distributing large quantities of ketamine to Perry and others. He announced charges against five people, including Sangha, 41, and two doctors, in connection with Perry’s death.
They face a series of charges, including drug distribution resulting in death, according to an indictment unsealed Thursday.
Ketamine, a legal drug commonly used as an anesthetic, has gained popularity in recent years both as a clinical treatment for depression and as a recreational drug. But Perry’s death and the arrests that followed have raised questions about whether a crackdown is imminent.
“I think what you’ve seen is that this is not the beginning but the continuation of an effort to combat synthetic drugs of all kinds,” Estrada said.
Estrada referred to the opioid fentanyl, which has fueled an epidemic of overdoses, and said authorities are “running a campaign to address this problem and send a message that if you sell drugs that result in the death of another person, there will be serious consequences.”
Across the country, ketamine use has exploded, which medical experts say is driven by clinics and online services offering intravenous treatments and at-home prescriptions — such as lozenges and nasal sprays — for conditions including depression, post-traumatic stress disorder and substance use disorders.
Carol Gilson, a Texas-based psychotherapist and licensed clinical social worker supervisor, has facilitated more than 3,000 ketamine-assisted therapy sessions.
“If you look at the reports of people dying with ketamine in their system, there’s usually an underlying health condition and other factors that are causing the death,” she said. “I think we’re seeing ketamine being demonized right now.”
Perry, who was found dead in a hot tub at his Los Angeles home, suffered from diabetes and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, which can cause blocked airways and breathing problems. He reportedly quit smoking just two weeks before his death and at one time smoked two packs of cigarettes a day.
Other factors contributing to his death, according to the medical examiner, included drowning, coronary artery disease and the effects of buprenorphine, a medication used to treat opioid addiction.
Gilson said she has personally witnessed hundreds of changes in people’s mental health after taking ketamine in a therapeutic setting.
Bad actors like those who sold Perry ketamine that he took at home unsupervised make it harder to spread information about its therapeutic benefits, Gilson said.
“Ketamine is a valuable medicine. And my biggest fear is that it’s in danger because of people like this,” she said. “There are people here with medical licenses who are supposed to follow a code of ethics, and they don’t. That’s the problem. Ketamine is not the bad guy.”
Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) Administrator Anne Milgram said Perry had been receiving treatment for depression and anxiety and had visited a local clinic “where he became addicted to intravenous ketamine.”
“When the clinic’s doctors refused to increase his dose, he turned to unscrupulous doctors who saw Perry as a way to make a quick buck,” Milgram said.
Authorities said Perry relied on a combination of medical professionals and street dealers, obtaining and using the drugs with the help of his assistant.
When another accused illegal trafficker, Salvador Plasencia, aka “Dr. P.”, learned in September 2023 that Perry wanted to obtain ketamine, he contacted another doctor, Mark Chavez, to purchase the drug, according to the indictment.
“I wonder how much this jerk is going to pay,” Plasencia, 42, reportedly texted Chavez. “Let’s see.”
Between September and October 2023, the doctors distributed about 20 vials of ketamine to Perry in exchange for $55,000 in cash, Estrada said. They charged Perry $2,000 for a vial that cost Chavez $12, authorities said.
“Plasencia saw this as an opportunity to take advantage of Mr. Perry,” Estrada said. “As a physician, defendant Plasencia knew full well the danger of what he was doing.”
According to the indictment, Plasencia allegedly injected Perry with a high dose of ketamine that caused the actor to become paralyzed and his blood pressure to rise significantly. Despite this, he allegedly left additional vials of the drug with Perry’s personal assistant, Kenneth Iwamasa, who is also charged.
“As Matthew Perry’s ketamine addiction grew, he wanted more, faster and cheaper,” Milgram said. “That’s how he ended up buying it from street dealers.”
In October, Iwamasa contacted Eric Fleming, 54, to purchase ketamine.
According to Estrada, when police searched Sangha’s home, they discovered what appeared to be “a drug market.” There were about 80 vials of ketamine, thousands of pills containing methamphetamine, cocaine and bottles of Xanax and other prescription drugs obtained illegally, authorities said.
Prosecutors say Sangha knew about the dangers of ketamine since at least August 2019, when she allegedly sold the drug to Cody McLaury in the hours before he died of an overdose at age 33.
After a family member of McLaury texted Sangha that his ketamine had killed McLaury, Sangha allegedly Googled “can ketamine be listed as a cause of death?”[?]Sangha is also charged in connection with McLaury’s death.
After Perry’s death, Estrada said, those arrested tried to cover up what they had done.
Sangha allegedly asked Fleming to delete all of their messages. Plasencia, Estrada said, falsified medical records and notes to “try to make it look like what he was doing was legitimate.”
Perry’s medical records indicated that the maximum dose he administered was 60 milligrams in 24 hours. In fact, prosecutors said, Perry was injecting himself with much higher doses.
Fleming and Chavez, 54, both pleaded guilty this month to charges of illegal drug distribution. Iwamasa, 59, also pleaded guilty and admitted to injecting Perry with ketamine without medical training, including performing multiple injections on the actor on the day he died, authorities said. Chavez faces up to 10 years in prison, Iwamasa 15 years and Fleming 25 years.
Plasencia faces up to 120 years in prison. Sangha faces life imprisonment.
Plasencia and Sangha were due to be arraigned Thursday and were not available for comment.
“By filing these serious and wide-ranging charges, we are sending a clear message. If you sell dangerous drugs, we will hold you accountable for the deaths you cause,” Estrada said.
Within the country’s ketamine-using community, news of Thursday’s charges was greeted with concern but little surprise.
Ren, a 32-year-old surgical technician who requested anonymity to discuss her medical history and what she described as drug addiction, said she takes thousands of milligrams of ketamine each month, all prescribed by a New York-based online provider who ships the drug in lozenge form to her home in Salt Lake City.
She said she was shocked by how easy it was to get a prescription from the provider, which is one of several startups that have caught the attention of the broader medical community because they dispense ketamine based on simple, brief online consultations.
“I could have said anything. I just said I was anxious and they said, ‘You’re accepted.’ Then they mailed me ketamine,” Ren said. “I didn’t even talk to a doctor to get access to it the first time. It was a clinic employee who didn’t even have a degree.”
She said she was not surprised by reports of people being harmed after becoming addicted to ketamine supplied by street dealers and unscrupulous online clinics like the one she is a patient at.
Ren said she believes some medical providers and dealers are more concerned about their bottom line than safety.
“They don’t care,” she said. “They want my money.”
Reporters Hannah Fry, Nathan Solis and Richard Winton contributed to this report.
