The world was stunned in October of last year when the beloved former Friends star Matthew Perry was found dead in an apparent overdose at the age of 54. Now, 10 months later, five arrests have been made regarding his death, and some of them are shocking.
Five Arrests Made In Perry’s Death
The U.S. Attorney’s office in the Central District of California confirmed to The New York Post that Perry’s live-in assistant Kenneth Iwamasa, 59, Dr. Mark Chavez, 54, and Dr. Salvador Plasencia, 42, have all been arrested on various federal charges. These charges include conspiracy to distribute ketamine.
The other two people who have been arrested in connection with Perry’s death are the alleged street dealer Erik Fleming, 54, and Jasveen Sangha, 41. The latter is a drug dealer that is known as the “Ketamine Queen” of Los Angeles, according to prosecutors.
“These defendants took advantage of Mr. Perry’s addiction issues to enrich themselves,” said U.S. Attorney Martin Estrada. “They knew what they were doing was wrong.”
Perry was found dead in his hot tub at his Pacific Palisades home by an assistant on October 28, 2023. It’s unclear if this assistant was Iwamasa or someone else.
An autopsy later revealed that Perry died due to the acute effects of the anesthetic ketamine. When he was found dead, he had 3.54 micrograms per milliliter of the drug in his bloodstream.
Perry had long been open about his addiction struggles. Though he was undergoing ketamine therapy for depression, his last treatment was over a week before he died. Ketamine’s half-life is only three to four hours. This means that the drug from treatment would likely not have still been in Perry’s system when he died.
Related: Jennifer Aniston Says She Texted Matthew Perry On The Day He Died: ‘He Wasn’t Struggling’
How Perry’s Death Happened
DEA Administrator Anne Milgram claims that when doctors at the clinic where Perry was being treated refused to increase his ketamine injections, the actor allegedly sought out Dr. Plasencia. This doctor then went to his colleague Dr. Chavez asking for help in getting this flow of drugs for Perry.
“Instead of ‘do no harm,’ they did harm so they could make more money,” Milgram said.
In the last month of Perry’s life, Plasencia and Chavez allegedly supplied him with about 20 vials of ketamine in exchange for around $55,000 in cash. Once the cost of this got too high, Perry allegedly resorted to going to the street dealer Fleming, who allegedly sourced his supply from Sangha, the “Ketamine Queen.”
Perry’s History On Friends
Perry was best known for playing Chandler Bing on Friends for 10 seasons from 1994 to 2004. He starred on the show with Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc, and David Schwimmer.
“I am so grateful for every moment I had with you Matty and I miss you every day,” Cox wrote on Instagram days after his passing. “When you work with someone as closely as I did with Matthew, there are thousands of moments I wish I could share.”
Perry’s death continues to be a tragedy. We’re glad that the people responsible are being held accountable, as they need to be taken off the street!
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