Lebanese food influencer sentenced to life for drug smuggling

What the report says

Al Jazeera reports that Georges Hanna Dib, the Lebanese food influencer widely known as “Dr Food,” has been sentenced in Beirut to life imprisonment with hard labour after a drug-smuggling case involving hashish concealed in cake packaging. The outlet said Judge Elie al-Helou also imposed a fine of 120 million Lebanese pounds, estimated at about $1,341, under Lebanon’s Narcotics Law.

According to the report, the case stemmed from a 2024 bust in which authorities found 820kg, or about 1,800 pounds, of hashish hidden inside packaging for cakes made in Baalbek, in eastern Lebanon. The drugs were reportedly moved through Turkiye before being shipped onward. Dib and other Lebanese and Syrian nationals were sentenced over offences linked to manufacturing, trafficking and smuggling banned drugs abroad.

Al Jazeera said Dib, who is not a medical doctor but has more than five million TikTok followers, is believed to be outside Lebanon. Those sentenced in absentia were also stripped of civil rights. The report added that a Mount Lebanon investigative judge had recommended a life sentence with hard labour in February 2025, after charging Dib in connection with the alleged drug operation.

The outlet noted that Dr Food’s Instagram account did not address the sentencing on Sunday and instead promoted a giveaway tied to his food brand. For context, Al Jazeera also described Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley as a known centre of hashish production and cited recent Lebanese police action against another high-profile drug trafficker.