EncroChat gun dealer sparked chaos when he stormed kickboxing ring

A yob who sparked a mass brawl after he stormed the ring during a kickboxing bout was later outed as an EncroChat gun dealer.

Bottles, chairs and metal posts were hurled amid chaotic scenes after Liam Chung entered the arena and attacked one of the fighters at the Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) event at the Black-E in Liverpool.

The altercation then, indirectly, led to him being identified as the user of the handle "CastleWinter" on the encrypted communications platform.

READ MORE: Join the FREE Manchester Evening News WhatsApp community

He was this week convicted of a string of drugs and firearms offences and was jailed for 20 years, reports the Liverpool Echo.

Choas broke out during a kickboxing fight between Adam Lea and Darren Lawlor after Lea elbowed Lawlor in the face, leaving him bleeding heavily from a cut to the forehead. Shocking footage of the brawl captured one aggressor being kicked in the head as he lay unconscious on the floor in a pool of blood.

Six thugs were hit with prison terms in April 2018 over the ugly scenes at the historic building on Great George Street in the Chinatown area of the city.

But Lawlor's cornerman and cousin Chung, then of Sullington Drive in Netherley, spent three years at large until his arrest during a dawn raid in Malaga in August 2020.

He was later extradited on a European arrest warrant in a joint operation involving Merseyside and Spanish police and the National Crime Agency. The former amateur kickboxer admitted affray and was eventually locked up for six months in October 2020 after pleading guilty to affray.

Michael Stephenson, prosecuting, told Liverpool Crown Court on this occasion that the referee had stopped the fight on March 4 2017 and separated the two opponents.

At