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mark chavez is one of two doctors involved in the death of "friends" actor matthew perry. on wednesday (october 2), he pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute ketamine. perry, 54, was found dead in a hot tub in the backyard of his pacific palisades home on october 28 last year.

chavez, also 54, lives in san diego and was free on bail pending sentencing. he has surrendered his passport and agreed to surrender his medical license and will no longer practice medicine. u.s. attorney martin estrada said the defendants in the case were part of an "extensive underground criminal network" that supplied ketamine to perry and others, city news service reported. "exploiting perry's addiction problem to get rich."

chavez is the third of the five defendants to sign a plea agreement with prosecutors. the other two defendants who pleaded guilty are: perry's 54-year-old relative erik fleming of hawthorne. and perry’s live-in aide, 59-year-old toluca lake resident kenneth iwamasa.

the two defendants who have pleaded not guilty are: jasveen sangha, 41, also known as the "ketamine queen," who lives in north hollywood; and salvador placencia, 42, a doctor who lives in santa monica. salvador plasencia). the indictment accuses sanha of distributing ketamine that caused perry's death. plasencia is charged with seven counts of distributing ketamine and two counts of tampering with and falsifying documents or records related to a federal investigation.

perry plays chandler bing in "friends." in his 2022 best-selling memoir, "friends, lovers, and big scary events," he talked about his years of struggle with drug addiction and dozens of rehabs. the los angeles county medical examiner determined perry's cause of death was "the acute effects of ketamine."

"contributing factors to mr. perry's death included drowning, coronary artery disease, and the effects of ibuprofen, which is used to treat opioid use disorder," the office said in a statement. "the manner of death was accidental." ketamine has been cleared by the u.s. drug enforcement administration. the dea has approved its use as an anesthetic, and agency director anne milgram said ketamine nasal spray can be used clinically to treat depression.

according to court documents, plasencia learned in late september 2023 that perry, a successful actor with a history of drug addiction, was interested in obtaining ketamine. he then contacted chavez, who once ran a ketamine clinic, to obtain ketamine and sell it to perry. in a text message to chavez, plasencia said of how much he would charge perry for ketamine, "i wonder how much this idiot is going to pay."

prosecutors said perry paid $2,000 per bottle of ketamine, while his dealers paid only $12 per bottle. last fall, perry fell back into drug addiction, and prosecutors said: "the defendant took advantage of that."

when doctors refused to increase perry's dose of ketamine, he turned to unscrupulous doctors. "not only are they causing harm, they're using it to make a lot of money," dea director milgren said.

prosecutors said placencia distributed ketamine to perry and his live-in assistant, iva massa, on at least seven occasions in september and october of last year without a legitimate medical purpose. he taught iwamasa how to inject perry with ketamine and sold the drug to iwamasa to administer to perry.

court documents allege that placencia knew iwamasa had never received medical training and had little or no knowledge of how to administer or treat controlled substances to patients.

prosecutors said that beginning in mid-october, iwamasa allegedly began obtaining ketamine for perry from fleming and sanha. he then injected perry according to the instructions and syringe provided by plasencia. perry died on october 28 after receiving multiple injections of ketamine. prosecutors noted that plasencia allegedly sold ketamine to iwamasa despite being told at least a week earlier that perry's drug addiction was out of control.

court documents show that after perry's death was reported, sanha texted fleming: "delete all our messages." prosecutors said federal agents and los angeles police department detectives were at sanha's home. a search warrant was obtained and evidence of drug trafficking was discovered, including approximately 79 vials of ketamine, approximately 3.1 pounds of orange pills containing methamphetamine, psychedelic mushrooms, cocaine and prescription drugs that appeared to be fraudulently obtained.

if convicted of all charges, sangha faces 10 years to life in prison. plasencia faces up to 10 years in federal prison on each ketamine-related count and up to 20 years in federal prison on each count of falsifying records.