A woman known as the “Ketamine Queen” has agreed to plead guilty to supplying the drugs that led to the death of Friends actor Matthew Perry, the U.S. Department of Justice announced.

Forty-two-year-old Jasvin Sangha, a dual U.S.-UK citizen, will plead guilty to several charges, including distribution of ketamine resulting in death or serious bodily injury. She has been held in federal custody since August 2024 and will formally enter her plea in the coming weeks. Sangha will become the fifth person to admit involvement in the death of the actor, who battled addiction for decades.

Matthew Perry was found dead in 2023 in the outdoor jacuzzi of his Los Angeles home at the age of 54. An autopsy revealed high levels of ketamine in his system, prompting a criminal investigation.

Last month, Dr. Salvador Placencia pleaded guilty to four counts of distributing ketamine in the weeks leading up to Perry’s death. Another physician, Mark Chavez, had already admitted in 2023 to participating in a conspiracy to supply the actor with ketamine. According to prosecutors, Placencia bought ketamine from Chavez and sold it to Perry at heavily inflated prices. In one text message, he cynically wrote: “I wonder how much this idiot will pay.”

In her plea agreement, Sangha admits she worked with middleman Eric Fleming to sell 51 vials of ketamine to the actor’s personal assistant, Kenneth Iwamasa. Iwamasa repeatedly injected Perry with the drug, including on October 28, 2023, when he administered at least three doses of Sangha’s ketamine — injections that proved fatal.

After news broke of the actor’s sudden death, Sangha tried to cover her tracks, telling Fleming: “Delete all our messages.”

Perry had been using ketamine as part of a controlled therapy for depression. Prosecutors, however, argue that before his death he developed a dependency on the substance, which, beyond its medical uses, has a psychedelic effect and is popular as a party drug.

Friends, the sitcom about six New Yorkers, brought worldwide fame and fortune to its cast, but behind the sarcastic character of Chandler, Matthew Perry fought a long battle with pain and addiction. In 2018, he suffered a colon rupture due to drug use and underwent several surgeries. In his 2022 memoir Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing, the actor admitted to going through dozens of detox programs. “Since 2001 I’ve mostly been sober,” he wrote, “except for about sixty or seventy little blips.” | BGNES