Dr Food described himself as someone with a ‘pure heart’ who’s been ‘wronged for years’, right after a judge handed him a life sentence

Georges Hanna Dib, known to millions of followers as Dr Food, has been sentenced to life in prison at hard labor after a drug trafficking conviction in Lebanon. As detailed by L’Orient-Le Jour, the Lebanese content creator built a large following reviewing restaurants and posting his own cooking, but the verdict was delivered in absentia last week by Judge Elie al-Helou. The sentencing marks a dramatic reversal for an influencer whose public persona centered on travel and dining.

The case traces back to an investigation that began in 2024, when authorities seized roughly 820 kilograms of hashish hidden inside cake and biscuit packaging. Judicial sources said the contraband was stored in a warehouse near Beirut International Airport, and investigators alleged the packaging itself was produced at a facility in the Charawneh neighborhood of Baalbeck, in the Bekaa Valley. The scale of the operation led to charges of manufacturing, trafficking, and smuggling drugs abroad under Article 150 of Lebanon’s drug law.

As detailed by The Tab, the Mount Lebanon Criminal Court, presided over by Judge al-Helou, found Dib and 10 other suspects guilty. Alongside the life sentence, the court imposed a fine of 120 million Lebanese pounds on each defendant and stripped them of their civil rights, since the ruling was handed down in absentia. Other men named in the verdict include Kamal Abbas Ramadan, Abdel Karim Zaher al-Salem, Ahmad Dolf al-Youssef, and Hassan Atiyeh Diab.

Dr Food is pushing back on the ruling from wherever he is hiding

The legal pressure had been building for some time before the final verdict. Judge Ziad Dghaidy issued an arrest warrant for Dib on the same charges back in May 2024, and by February 2025 the investigating judge had formally requested a life sentence at hard labor given the scale of the smuggling operation.

Reports have circulated for months about his whereabouts, with many pointing to Dubai as the destination he fled to in order to avoid the judicial process, a pattern that has echoed in other cases of Western nationals running into serious legal trouble in the emirate. Despite his absence from the courtroom, Dib has stayed active on social media to address the situation.

The story gained traction when reported by The Tab, which noted he posted a series of Instagram stories over the weekend from an undisclosed location, urging his audience to withhold judgment and insisting the legal process was still ongoing, even though the judge had already delivered a definitive sentence. In a translated message, he described himself as someone with a “pure heart” who has been “wronged for years,” adding, “They exploit you, they laugh at you, they trap you, they exploit you.”

Dib maintained a defiant tone, telling followers he was continuing to work with a full legal team in constant coordination with the judiciary. He has also tried to cast doubt on the case against him, claiming authorities previously inspected one of his factories and produced a clean report, a defense that stands in sharp contrast to the court’s findings.

Comparisons to the show Breaking Bad have followed online, given the similarity of trafficking drugs through food packaging, a comparison that has resurfaced alongside other viral crime stories tied to online personalities this year. For his audience, the shift from lighthearted food content to a life sentence for international drug smuggling has been jarring.

Dib continues to assert his innocence through social media while operating from abroad, but the judicial system in Lebanon has finalized its ruling against him and 10 co-defendants.