Satan says, “Hey, I have standards.”

At around 5 p.m. on April 2, local police and officers from the Philippines National Bureau of Investigation descended on a four-story warehouse in suburban Manila. They were acting on a tip-off about possible illicit activity. But the agents weren’t searching for drugs or knockoff Rolexes. They were looking for rice. The inspection was part of a nationwide effort to nab profiteers who, taking advantage of sky-high prices for Asia’s most basic food, are suspected of repackaging government-subsidized rice and reselling it at higher market rates. Officers have had some success, discovering 27,000 bags of rice at one warehouse, according to Rex Estoperez, spokesman for the Philippines National Food Authority NFA, which distributes subsidized grain. “Another warehouse was caught in possession of many, many [empty] NFA sacks,” says Estoperez. “So where did the rice go?”

No Grain, Big Pain – TIME