A later search of an Escalade – believed to be obtained by crime — revealed a loaded handgun hidden in a cardboard box under its hood.
Acting Staff Sgt. Jason Walker, with the organized crime section’s community response unit ,said Chin was arrested on June 12 during a traffic stop in a black Escalade.
While police believe it was obtained by crime, and fraudulently registered to Chin, Walker said they do not know whether he was aware of those details or not, saying he may be “a legitimate victim.”
He is not facing any charges in relation to the vehicle and the investigation is ongoing.
Walker said police were searching for the vehicle not Chin when the arrest was made in the early-morning hours of June 12.
"Our investigation led us to believe it was obtained by crime and we made our frontline officers aware of the vehicle and that's how we found it," he said.
"Mr. Chin was cooperative."
Chin, who was sent to prison for 23-months for weapons and drug-related convictions, lost his brother Roger in a gang-related shooting in 2008.
Last July, Chin was given statutory release on those charges to serve the rest of his sentence in the community.
In August, Calgary police arrested him in a traffic stop wearing a bullet-proof vest , carrying two cell phones and he also had a pocketknife.
By November 2009, a National Parole Board panel revoked his release and sent him back to prison.
Chin, who has always denied being a gang member, said the phones belonged to his father who forgot them in the car and that, given fears by police he might be targeted in gang violence, the vest was for his protection.
At the time the panel said the decision was reached because Chin failed to follow conditions — including not having a cell phone, adhering to a curfew and avoiding gang members — imposed upon him.
"I'll be 26 in a month, I'm getting old, too old for this," he told the two-member panel at the time.
"I was trying to get my life together but it didn't work out too well .. I was trying."
At the time it was anticipated Chin’s new statutory release date would be in early 2011.
It is not known exactly when he was released again.
Walker said it is a relief to seize the loaded gun in the latest dealings with Chin.
"It comes down to public safety - there we have a loaded firearm in a vehicle being driven around on the streets," he said.
"To what end, I don’t know ... nothing good can come of it."
Chin is remanded in custody until July 6.
He is charged with numerous weapons-related charges including carry a concealed weapon and possesses an unlicensed weapon.
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