A Lifestyle Built on Exclusivity — Now Exchanged for a Prison Cell

She once boasted about selling only to “red carpet motherf**kers.” Now, Jasveen Sangha — the woman prosecutors nicknamed the “Ketamine Queen” — is heading to federal prison for 15 years.

On Wednesday, a federal judge handed down the sentence, closing one of the most high-profile drug trafficking cases in recent memory. Prosecutors described Sangha’s North Hollywood operation as a “high volume drug trafficking business” that she ran not out of desperation, but out of pure ambition — chasing money, glamour, and access to the elite.

The Night Everything Changed

October 28, 2023. Friends star Matthew Perry was found face down in his hot tub at his Pacific Palisades home. The Los Angeles Medical Examiner later determined the cause of death was the acute effects of ketamine, followed by drowning.

Within months, a federal investigation had unraveled an underground network of doctors and drug suppliers. Sangha and four others were charged in August 2024. A year later, she pleaded guilty to five federal criminal charges — including directly supplying the ketamine that killed Perry. The other four defendants had already struck their own deals with prosecutors.

A Warning Shot to the Entire Industry

Shortly after Sangha’s indictment, then-US Attorney E. Martin Estrada made the government’s intentions crystal clear.

“If you’re in the drug business and despite these risks you continue — pushed by greed to gamble with other people’s lives — be advised, we will hold you accountable,” he told reporters.

It wasn’t just rhetoric. Legal experts say prosecuting high-profile cases like Perry’s sends a powerful message far beyond the courtroom. Florida-based trial attorney Andrew Pickett told CNN that these cases “shed light on the broader implications of the drug crisis” and serve as a warning to anyone operating in the shadows of legality.

Perry Wasn’t the First — and the Pattern Is Disturbing

Perry’s death draws uncomfortable echoes from a long line of celebrity overdose tragedies. Rapper Mac Miller died in 2018 from a fentanyl, cocaine and ethanol overdose. Baseball pitcher Tyler Skaggs was found dead in 2019 with opioids in his system. Actor Philip Seymour Hoffman was found in 2014 with a lethal cocktail of heroin, cocaine, benzodiazepines and amphetamine.

In each case, alleged suppliers were arrested. Not all were convicted. But the legal pressure is growing — and law enforcement across the country is increasingly dedicating more resources to aggressively pursue traffickers.

An undercover LAPD detective put it bluntly to CNN in 2022: “It all comes down to money, it all comes down to profit. The dealer’s main objective is to get you hooked, and if you don’t die from it, then you’re a customer for as long as you live.”

How Perry Became a Target

Perry had been public about his decades-long addiction struggles — he even published a memoir about them less than a year before his death. Prosecutors say that in the fall of 2023, he relapsed, and Sangha’s network moved in.

“The investigation revealed that in the fall of 2023, Mr. Perry fell back into addiction and these defendants took advantage to profit for themselves,” Estrada said.

His stepfather, Keith Morrison, described Perry in court as “funny, brilliant, with lots of ghosts — generous, kind, infuriating and fabulous.” He said Perry viewed dealers as “sometimes his best friends, sometimes his worst enemies.”

Another Victim the Headlines Missed

Perry’s death was the catalyst — but he wasn’t Sangha’s only victim.

In 2019, Cody McLaury, an aspiring personal trainer, died of a ketamine overdose. Prosecutors say Sangha supplied the drug. The two men never knew each other, but they shared the same dealer.

Cody’s sister, Kimberly McLaury, found out the hard way. After getting her brother’s phone back from police, she discovered a text conversation with Sangha — and records showing payment through Venmo.

She texted Sangha after the death certificate came back. “Just so you know, the ketamine that you sold my brother was listed as his cause of death,” she wrote.

She never got a reply.

On Wednesday, Kimberly McLaury finally got to speak directly to Sangha in court.

“You didn’t feel bad when my brother died,” she said. “The loss of human life didn’t stop you.”

Sangha was not charged in connection with Cody’s death, but prosecutors asked the judge to consider it in sentencing — noting that his death didn’t slow Sangha down at all.

The Sentence, the Reaction, and What Comes Next

Sangha’s defense attorneys, Mark Geragos and Alexandra Kazarian, painted a different picture of their client — someone who had used her time in custody productively, supported others in recovery, and accepted responsibility. They asked for time served.

The judge sided with prosecutors: 180 months — 15 years.

Geragos was visibly frustrated after the hearing. “There’s no way that Jasveen is five times more culpable than the person who injected Matthew Perry with the drug or the doctor who got the drug,” he said.

Prosecutors had no sympathy in their final memo: “She chose profits over people. She had the opportunity to stop after realizing the impact of her dealing — but simply chose not to.”

Morrison, Perry’s stepfather, ended his court remarks by addressing Sangha directly. Looking at someone who appeared visibly emotional, he said something quietly devastating:

“I feel bad for you. I don’t hate you. The law is the law, and it’s very clear.”