A food influencer with almost 15M followers has been sentenced to life in prison after being found guilty of manufacturing drugs and smuggling them overseas hidden inside food packaging.
Georges Hanna Dib, better known online as Dr Food, built a huge social media following by sharing cooking videos, restaurant reviews and promoting his own food products.
But the Lebanese influencer has now been convicted in absentia over a major drug-smuggling operation that prosecutors said used his food business as a front, as reported by Need To Know.
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The Mount Lebanon Criminal Court sentenced Dib to life imprisonment with hard labour and fined him 120 million Lebanese pounds (around £1,000). He was also stripped of his civil rights because he was sentenced in his absence.
Authorities alleged Dib, his company Dr Food Worldwide and several other defendants manufactured cannabis-based narcotics before concealing them inside biscuit and cake packaging for shipment abroad via Turkey.
The case stems from a 2024 seizure of around 820kg (1,800lbs) of hashish allegedly hidden inside cake packaging produced at a factory in Baalbek, eastern Lebanon.
The influencer, who is not a qualified doctor despite his online name, is believed to be outside Lebanon and has not been taken into custody. Authorities say he remains wanted.
The case has been dubbed locally as “Lebanon’s Breaking Bad”, with comparisons drawn to the hit TV series in which fictional drug kingpin Gus Fring concealed narcotics using his fast-food empire.
Despite the ruling, Dib has continued posting to social media.
In videos shared after the verdict, he denied wrongdoing, insisted he had been “wronged” for several years and said his legal team was handling the case.
He urged followers to wait for the judicial process to conclude and maintained the allegations did not reflect the full picture.
His social media accounts have continued promoting giveaways and food-related content, making no direct reference to the life sentence.
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