They have “uncovered a widespread criminal underground network” that, among other things, distributed large quantities of ketamine to the deceased “Friends” star.
Following the drug-related death of “Friends” star Matthew Perry, the Los Angeles District Attorney’s Office has charged five people. The investigation has uncovered “a widespread underground criminal network responsible for distributing large quantities of ketamine to Mr. Perry and others,” said District Attorney Martin Estrada at a press conference. Perry suffered from depression and had large quantities of ketamine in his system at the time of his death.
This network included an assistant to Perry, various middlemen, two doctors and a major drug source known as the “Ketamine Queen,” Estrada continued. “The defendants exploited Mr. Perry’s addiction problems to enrich themselves. They knew what they were doing was wrong. They knew that they were putting Mr. Perry in great danger – but they did it anyway.”
High concentration of ketamine in the blood
The successful investigation comes more than nine months after Perry’s death. The police had focused their work on how the 54-year-old had obtained the anesthetic ketamine, which he had an unusually high amount of in his blood at the time of his death.
Perry was found in a hot tub in his Los Angeles home last October. The actor had previously spoken publicly about his struggle with addiction, including to alcohol and drugs, and also wrote about it in his autobiography “Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing,” which was published last year.
Heart disease and opioid addiction
An investigation by the Los Angeles Medical Examiner’s Office in December found that Perry had died from the effects of ketamine. Other factors included drowning, heart disease and the effects of a drug used to treat opioid addiction, it said.
