Lebanon arrests food influencer 'Dr Food' over drug-laced treats

Lebanon on Sunday arrested an online influencer "Doctor Food" known for his videos about food who had been handed a life sentence in absentia for drug trafficking.

Georges Dib, known on TikTok as "Doctor Food" and followed by more than eight million accounts, was apprehended at his home in the far north governorate of Akkar, a hudicial source told AFP.

Dib, who also owns a confectionery business, would be taken to a detention centre in Mount Lebanon, where he would face a new trial on further drug trafficking charges, the source added.

Two years ago, the Lebanese judiciary issued a warrant for Dib, accusing him of "manufacturing narcotics, trafficking and smuggling them abroad", according to Lebanon's state-run National News Agency (NNA).

The NNA said at the time that authorities had seized confectionery and other food products at Beirut's Rafic Hariri International Airport that contained narcotics and were manufactured in factories owned by Dib.

The products were to be shipped to a Gulf country, the news agency reported.

Despite an arrest warrant and conviction against him, Dib continued to post videos on TikTok.

Last month, after news of his conviction was made public, he denied the accusations in one of his videos, urging followers not to listen to what was being said about him.

Dib rose to prominence on social media posting content about cooking and daily life with his ex-wife, known as Shorouk, a Canadian of Palestinian origin who has more than 15 million followers.

They separated after she accused him of abuse. On Saturday night, she held a "divorce party" at a seaside resort in Lebanon attended by thousands of her followers.

The "Doctor Food" case began in 2023, when 16 pieces of cannabis resin in the form of rectangular blocks, wrapped in nylon and placed inside chocolate boxes bearing the "Dr Food" trademark, along with chocolate bars carrying the same brand, were found inside the luggage of defendant Abdel Karim Al-Sammak as he prepared to travel to Turkey through Beirut's Rafik Hariri International Airport.

According to the indictment, the contents of which were leaked at the time, "the documented evidence and information proved that Dib, in his personal capacity and in his capacity as chairman of the board and general manager of Doctor Food World Wide SAL, exploited his fame and influence on social media to promote his wafer products carrying the Doctor Food trademark in Lebanon and abroad".

It added that “he contracted defendant Mohsen Diab, who owns a biscuit manufacturing factory, to produce wafer bars while simultaneously manufacturing bars of pure cannabis resin and packaging them inside the same wrappers and boxes.”