A doctor and suspected drug dealers have been arrested in connection with the death of Friends actor Matthew Perry, US media has reported.
The move follows a lengthy investigation into who supplied Perry with ketamine that caused him to lose consciousness and drown in his hot tub last October.
Police and other law enforcement agencies executed search warrants and seized computers, phones and other electronic equipment, according to the US celebrity news website TMZ.
Sources familiar with the investigation told TMZ that the ketamine Perry consumed was not legally prescribed.
The website claimed a doctor has been arrested, along with several suspected drug dealers.
According to TMZ, one search warrant revealed text messages discussing the ketamine Perry wanted, what they were doing to get it to him and what he would pay for the drug.
Struggle with alcohol and substance abuse
The months-long investigation involved the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD), Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), United States Postal Service and the US Attorney’s Office.
A spokesman for the LAPD referred an enquiry by The Telegraph to the DEA.
Perry was discovered face down in a hot tub at his home in Pacific Palisades, Los Angeles last October.
The LA County Medical Examiner’s Office ruled that his death was caused by the acute effects of ketamine, a recreational drug that can also be prescribed to treat depression. A coroner ruled it was an accident.
Authorities said that contributing factors had included drowning, coronary artery disease and the effects of buprenorphine, a drug used to treat opioid use disorder.
Perry, who was best known for his role as Chandler Bing in the American sitcom, had been open about his struggle with alcohol and substance abuse before his death, although he said he had stopped using drugs.
The medical examiner’s report after his death found high levels of ketamine in his body, equivalent to the amount that would be used for anaesthesia.
Perry had been undergoing ketamine infusion treatment due to his depression, but the quantity of the drug in his body at the time of death could not be attributed to the treatment alone, the examiner said.
‘He was happy, he was healthy’
In his memoir, Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing, Perry wrote extensively about his struggles with addiction, including during his time filming the hit sitcom.
He said he had taken ketamine as part of treatment for his mental health conditions in a Swiss clinic.
“Ketamine was a very popular street drug in the 1980s. There is a synthetic form of it now, and it’s used for two reasons: to ease pain and help with depression,” he wrote.
He said that his addiction had begun in 1997, three years after Friends first aired, when he was prescribed the drug Vicodin to deal with the pain from a jet skiing accident.
During some of the series, he was taking 55 pills a day and said he thought his hangovers had affected his performance on the show.
“One time, in a scene in the coffeehouse when I’m dressed in a suit, I fell asleep right there on the couch, and disaster was averted only when Matt LeBlanc nudged me awake right before my line,” he wrote. “No one noticed, but I knew how close I’d come.”
His death prompted an outpouring of grief from his co-stars, including Jennifer Aniston, who played Rachel Green.
“He was happy. He was healthy. He had quit smoking,” she said in December. “I was literally texting with him that morning, funny Matty. He was not in pain. He wasn’t struggling. He was happy.”
Lisa Kudrow, who played Phoebe Buffay, said she had begun rewatching the show in tribute to her friend’s death.