Downfall of the British heiress jailed for becoming Matthew Perry's 'Ketamine Queen'

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Sangha, 41, was sentenced on Wednesday on five federal charges, including supplying the dose that killed the Friends star.

Prosecutors said she and intermediary Erik Fleming sold Perry 51 vials of ketamine in two transactions, including the fatal dose. Fleming is due to be sentenced later this month.

Born in Ilford, east London, in 1983, Sangha came from a wealthy family and was raised with the prospect of inheriting a substantial fortune.

After moving to California with her mother in the 1990s, she thrived academically, becoming an honour roll student at Calabasas High School and receiving a President’s Award for Educational Excellence – before graduating in 2001.

Sangha then went on to study social sciences at the University of California, Irvine.

Soon after, Sangha also completed an MBA in London and at one stage worked in the family’s fashion business.

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Friends and former acquaintances described her as sociable, ambitious and drawn to status, designer clothes and celebrity circles.

However, after returning to Los Angeles in her late 20s and opening a nail salon called Stiletto Nail Bar, Sangha became a familiar face in the Hollywood party scene – where ketamine was widely used.

Sangha became part of a friends group known as the “Kitties”, who threw parties attended by celebrities.

The group reportedly took their name from its aural similarity to 'ketamine'.

Tony Marquez, a close friend of Sangha’s from her time in Hollywood, said the parties "always involved ketamine".

Prosecutors said her world increasingly overlapped with drug dealing, and that Sangha went on to run a supply operation serving wealthy clients in Los Angeles.

When police raided her home in March 2024, they found about 79 vials of ketamine, pills containing methamphetamine, cocaine, psilocybin mushrooms and prescription drugs.

While Bill Bodner, a retired Drug Enforcement Administration agent whose office led the investigation into Perry’s death, told The Telegraph Sangha "was running a somewhat large drug trafficking operation catering to the Hollywood elite", Marquez described the stash as merely enough to cover "two weekends of partying at a big event".

Marquez added: “She was never a kingpin. She was never a big dealer."

Prosecutors said Sangha had been dealing drugs for at least four years before Perry’s death, alleging she supplied ketamine to 33-year-old Cody McLaury, who died of an overdose in 2019.

Although she was not charged over McLaury’s death, prosecutors have linked it to her drug supply.

McLaury’s autopsy report states that he died of a cocktail of drugs, including ketamine, heroin, methamphetamine and cocaine.

Matthew Perry was found dead at the age of 54 in a hot tub at his Los Angeles home in October 2023.

The investigation into his death led authorities to Sangha, who prosecutors said continued to sell dangerous drugs despite knowing the risks.

The 42-year-old pleaded guilty last September to five charges, including one count of distributing ketamine resulting in death or bodily injury.

Ahead of sentencing, Perry’s stepmother Debbie Perry asked the court to impose the maximum punishment, saying Sangha had caused “irreversible” harm.

In a victim impact statement, she wrote: “The pain you’ve caused to hundreds, maybe thousands, is irreversible.”

Sangha’s lawyers had presented her as a highly educated woman with no previous criminal record, but prosecutors argued she had shown little remorse and had kept dealing even after earlier overdose warnings.