Former Calgary girls’ hockey coach charged with 21 child luring, extortion crimes

A former assistant coach of a girls’ hockey team in Calgary is facing several charges after police say he lured girls on social media, demanded they send him sexual content, and even threatened them when they wouldn’t comply.

Alberta Law Enforcement Response Teams (ALERT) Internet Child Exploitation (ICE) arrested 23-year-old Malik Buccini-Small last week following an extensive investigation by multiple police departments.

At the time of his arrest, Buccini-Small was coaching a girls’ hockey team in the city. ALERT says he’s also been involved in coaching other youth sports.

Mike Tucker with ALERT says Buccini-Small was using Snapchat and Discord to message youth across the province. Police were alerted to his alleged actions when three of his victims contacted police.

Police say Buccini-Small used the usernames: “iggypup,” “wakanda4ever,” and aliases “MJ” or “007.”

So far, victims have been identified in Red Deer and Morinville, and they range in age between seven and 15 years old. Investigators believe there are likely additional victims.

“Our priority is to protect children and help those that have been victimized. We have digital evidence that points to other victims and we are hoping they can come forward and share their information with police,” said Const. Mackenzie Jordan with ICE.

Buccini-Small has been charged with 21 crimes in connection to the three victims. The charges against Buccini-Small include child luring, invitation to sexual touching, extortion, uttering threats, obtaining sexual services for consideration, making sexually explicit materials available to a child, making child sexual abuse materials, distributing child sexual abuse materials, possessing child sexual abuse materials, and accessing child sexual abuse materials.

He remains in custody and is scheduled to appear in court on Tuesday.

Tucker says it’s important for parents to have conversations with their children and get more involved with what their kids are doing online.

“That could be as simple as sitting down and getting an understanding of what apps they’re using. You know, we make a concerted effort to know their friends in the real world,” he explained. “But, we don’t really understand who they’re spending time with online.

Anyone with information about this case is asked to contact local police or CrimeStoppers.