{"id":105816,"date":"2025-12-07T21:04:00","date_gmt":"2025-12-07T21:04:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=105816"},"modified":"2025-12-07T21:04:00","modified_gmt":"2025-12-07T21:04:00","slug":"ketamine-queen-spiralled-before-matthew-perry-death-friends-tell-bbc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=105816","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Ketamine Queen\u2019 spiralled before Matthew Perry death, friends tell BBC"},"content":{"rendered":"
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She was a woman who appeared to have it all: a privileged upbringing, a good education and a wide circle of friends.<\/p>\n

But Jasveen Sangha had a dark secret that some of her closest friends say she concealed even from them. The dual British-American national was a dealer to Hollywood\u2019s rich and famous, who ran a \u201cstash house\u201d of drugs, including cocaine, Xanax, fake Adderall pills and ketamine.<\/p>\n

Her business \u2013 and the illusion of her charmed life \u2013 came to an abrupt end after supplying 50 vials of ketamine that were ultimately sold to Friends actor Matthew Perry, including the dose that led to his overdose death in 2023.<\/p>\n

Now, Sangha is among five others, including two doctors, who have pleaded guilty to offences in Perry\u2019s death.<\/p>\n

In February Sangha is set to be the final defendant sentenced in the case, which uncovered an underground ketamine drug network in Los Angeles. She could face a maximum of 65 years in federal prison.<\/p>\n

Matthew Perry, 54, was found dead at his Los Angeles home in 2023 after years of struggling with depression and addiction<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Bill Bodner, special agent in charge of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) Los Angeles office at the time of Perry\u2019s death, told the BBC she was \u201ca highly educated person who decided to make their living trafficking drugs, and use that money from drug trafficking to finance this social media influencer persona\u201d.<\/p>\n

He said Sangha was running a \u201csomewhat large drug trafficking operation catering to the Hollywood elite\u201d.<\/p>\n

Prosecutors have outlined that Perry was taking legal, prescribed amounts of ketamine to treat depression, but then started wanting more than was permitted by his doctors.<\/p>\n

Court documents relating to the federal investigation show it led him to multiple doctors and then to a dealer who sourced the drug for Sangha via an intermediary.<\/p>\n

Her attorney, Mark Geragos, has said Sangha is taking responsibility but has denied she actually knew Perry, who was best known for playing Chandler Bing on the long-running sitcom Friends.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe feels horrible. She\u2019s felt horrible from day one,\u201d Geragos told reporters after she pleaded guilty in the case. \u201cThis has been a horrendous experience.\u201d<\/p>\n

But how did Sangha manage her double life?<\/h2>\n
Tony Marquez frequently partied with Sangha in California<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Weeks before Perry\u2019s death, Sangha spoke on the phone with long-time friend, Tony Marquez.<\/p>\n

He and others talked to the BBC, as part of an\u00a0upcoming documentary on iPlayer that looks into the circumstances around Perry\u2019s death. It marks the first time that friends have opened up about the woman who has become known worldwide as the Ketamine Queen.<\/p>\n

Sangha and Marquez had known each other since the 2010s, and he said he had even met her family. Like Sangha, Marquez was also a regular on the LA party circuit.<\/p>\n

He has also faced legal issues over drugs and has a previous conviction for drug trafficking. But while the two shared a long history, he says Sangha never hinted that she was in deep water.<\/p>\n

Only a few months prior, her North Hollywood home, which prosecutors dubbed a \u201cstash house\u201d had been raided by police.<\/p>\n

Jash Negandhi attended University of California, Irvine with Sangha in 2001, and they have remained friends for more than 20 years.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe was very much into the dance music scene,\u201d recalls Negandhi. \u201cShe loved to dance and have a good time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Negandhi said he was blindsided by the revelation that his friend was a drug dealer.<\/p>\n

\u201cI knew nothing,\u201d he says. \u201cAbsolutely nothing. She hadn\u2019t spoken about it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Certainly, most friends assumed she didn\u2019t need the money.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe always had money,\u201d says Marquez. \u201cShe travelled all over by private jet, and did that way before everything blew up.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jash Negandhi attended university with Sangha<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Sangha\u2019s grandparents were fashion retail multimillionaires in East London, according to The Times, and Sangha \u2013 the daughter of entrepreneur Nilem Singh and Dr Baljeet Singh Chhokar \u2013 stood to inherit the family wealth.<\/p>\n

Her mother remarried twice and moved to Calabasas in California, where Sangha grew up. Her family home in Los Angeles is \u201cbeautiful\u201d and \u201cbig\u201d, according to Marquez.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe would have cookouts or a pool party at her parents\u2019 house,\u201d he says. \u201cThey\u2019re very caring, very loving, and they treated us like we were their kids.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sangha spent time in London after high school and graduated with an MBA from the Hult International Business School in London in 2010. In pictures, she can be seen smiling sweetly at the camera in a smart black suit with straightened brown hair during a visit to the Financial Times in 2010.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe didn\u2019t come off as a hustler,\u201d notes one former classmate. Sangha was friendly, if somewhat aloof.<\/p>\n

She wore designer clothes to class and enjoyed socialising. There were no rumours of involvement in drugs. \u201cIf she were a user in Hult, we\u2019d probably know about it.\u201d<\/p>\n

She returned to Los Angeles soon after completing her MBA. Sangha\u2019s mother and stepfather ran KFC franchises in California and were sued by the company for more than $50,000 in 2013, court documents show, for failing to pay royalties to the company for the use of its branding.<\/p>\n

Sangha\u2019s stepfather declared bankruptcy before the case was over. If Sangha\u2019s family was experiencing financial difficulty during this period, however, she did not disclose it to many people.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t hear anything about that,\u201d says Negandhi.<\/p>\n

Sangha seemed to want to reach her parents\u2019 entrepreneurial accomplishments. She opened a short-lived nail salon Stiletto Nail Bar, and talked to friends about ambitions including owning a franchise of restaurants.<\/p>\n

Drug-fuelled parties that went on for days<\/h2>\n

But her real interest seemed to be in clubbing. In Los Angeles, she had a close-knit circle of friends called the \u201cKitties\u201d, according to Marquez, which was a clique of mostly female friends who liked to throw parties \u2013 attended by celebrities.<\/p>\n

They would often meet at Avalon, a historic theatre in the heart of Hollywood that hosts concerts and electronic music events, and party until the early hours of the morning.<\/p>\n

He says they would take pills and ketamine. Sometimes their parties, which they held across California, would go on for days.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe would take a trip to Lake Havasu, rent a big old mansion, and we would bring our DJs, all our sound systems, and every night would be a theme night that would just be us,\u201d Marquez says of the lake, which borders California and Arizona.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019d get all dressed up, and we\u2019d have a white party, a glitter party. We had a shroom-shroom party.\u201d<\/p>\n

These parties \u201calways involved ketamine,\u201d he says. But even though Sangha had many nicknames within this clique of friends, no one ever knew her as \u201cThe Ketamine Queen\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo one called her that,\u201d says Marquez.<\/p>\n

The group was concerned about contamination of the illegal drug supply with the deadly opioid fentanyl, and therefore went to extraordinary lengths to source large quantities of high-quality ketamine.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we were going to do ketamine, we wanted to get it from the source,\u201d says Marquez.<\/p>\n

The friends allegedly used couriers to go to Mexico to retrieve the drug, which is used as a sedative during surgery, from corrupt veterinarians and pharmacies across the border.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wouldn\u2019t know of Jasveen doing that,\u201d says Marquez. \u201cBut did we have access? Did we have people that did it? Yes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Marquez claims he never suspected Sangha was dealing drugs on the side: \u201cIt\u2019s shocking, I\u2019m telling you.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYears and years I\u2019ve known this person. I know her family. I know the way she acts, I know what she\u2019s capable of. I know where she comes from. I cannot \u2013 still to this day \u2013 I can\u2019t believe this is happening,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Looking back, Marquez suspects that Sangha became \u201caddicted\u201d to the social status that came with being a drug dealer to the rich and famous.<\/p>\n

\u201cI truly believe that Jasveen was addicted to that life of dealing to celebrities,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe was addicted to being in that social circle and being wanted by celebrities that people have seen all their lives on TV.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said he believes she was never a \u201ckingpin\u201d or a big-time dealer, but simply fell into the trade because she \u201cloved doing ketamine, just like all of us\u201d.<\/p>\n

Sangha\u2019s actions suggest a more ruthless streak, however.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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