WALPOLE ISLAND - Everybody says they know human smuggling is going on here, but no one really wants to talk about it.

Not the acting police chief of the reserve, who says controlling it is really a federal responsibility that his overworked six-member force is not equipped to handle.

Not the Canada Customs officer wearing the bulletproof vest, who points to the line of bullet holes in his office window as a good reason to keep his comments to himself.

And certainly not the residents of this close-knit community of 3,000, who see the media spotlight as an intrusion that threatens to forever change Walpole Island's image from a great place for duck hunting to a smuggler's haven.

The dozens of marshes, lagoons and rivers along the island's coastline make this reserve an ideal conduit for smugglers ferrying their human cargo to the United States.

After all, it's only a five-minute boat ride across the St. Clair River. And those with a passport can take the ferry for $4.

The arrest last week of two Walpole band members - Jacqueline Soney, 48, and her son Robin, 29 - on charges of attempting to smuggle 10 Chinese girls into the U.S. is the latest in a string of such events.

``We've noticed an increase (in smuggling) in the past year,'' said Walpole Island Senior Constable Lyle Johnson.

``The coastline is 12 miles long . . . I'm sure there are lots of them who make it to the other end without being reported.''

On Dec. 30, U.S. border patrol officers caught 11 Chinese nationals trying to enter the country near Algonac, Mich., directly across the river from the reserve.

Since April, seven natives from Walpole Island have been convicted in Detroit courts of alien smuggling.