Drug kingpin IDed using advanced voice identification

Advanced voice recognition technology busted one Juan Carlos Ramirez Abadia recently, a drug kingpin who had drastic plastic surgery in a failed attempt to mask his true identity. Because of his plastic surgery, Brazilian Police were unable to gain positive identification required for an arrest warrant. Instead, Colombian officials provided the US Drug Enforcement Agency with taped conversations, which the US body was able to match to Ramirez Abadia. It's not clear how advanced the technology actually is, since the Government keeps it under wraps: judging by the importance of this arrest, and the impending trial, we'd hope that it's beyond the capabilities of regular off-the-shelf desktop software.

[Via PlasticSurgery101]

[Neeko @ Aug 13th 2007 9:39AM]

I beleive this technology has been out for a while. It is even recently showcased in the new jason Bourne movie.. Very very cool and very VERY scary.

[KawF @ Aug 13th 2007 9:41AM]

Protip: Voice identification does not equal the crap you use to go Star Trek on your computer like the biggest nerd out there. It's as similar as fingerprint identification is to clicking your mouse button. Which is not similar at all (in case you did not get that...).

[oshean @ Aug 13th 2007 10:09AM]

Wow! Juan looks 15 years younger since I've last seen him.

[fubeca @ Aug 13th 2007 10:19AM]

Why would anyone choose the "Freddie Mercury" package from the plastic surgery catalog?

[HineyWipe @ Aug 13th 2007 10:45AM]

I was thinking more like Paulie Jr from Orange County Choppers...

[strider_mt2k @ Aug 13th 2007 10:31AM]

(This works every time, hehe)
[CLICK]

"Hello? Who's this?"

"I'm Ramirez Abadia!"

(Oh man the computer is still down. Well that's him anyway, let's go!)

[Josh @ Aug 13th 2007 10:42AM]

Dear aunt, let’s set so double the killer delete select all.

[YouFaceTheTick @ Aug 13th 2007 10:45AM]

What a waste of time and resources. Even we spent all this cash on something useful...instead of fighting a "drug war: that only a few moralistic types want to win.

[Nando @ Aug 14th 2007 1:59AM]

Your comment shows you have no idea what the drug wars have done to Colombia.

[roywebsvcs @ Aug 28th 2007 2:05PM]

your comment shows that you have no idea why people use drugs.

[JAy @ Aug 13th 2007 10:49AM]

They probably _dont_ have working voice recognition technology. We're living in a society where the ends justify the means, comrade. They got the "bad" guy, of what significance is evidence?

[gfar @ Aug 13th 2007 10:54AM]

Note to self: invent new surgery to alter people's voices.

[Diego @ Aug 13th 2007 11:05AM]

This guy was living 2 miles away from me...
I should start paying better attention to my neighbors faces... I can`t afford to lose another 5 Million Dollar bounty!

[Speedmonkay @ Aug 13th 2007 11:10AM]

He could always just deny that he is Juan Abadia and have his attorney fight for the source code to the voice recognition software and try to prove it is faulty.

[psxp @ Aug 13th 2007 11:47AM]

good god! Lord Lucan!

[wdowerstaylor @ Aug 13th 2007 1:53PM]

i don't believe this guy he is crazy i can't believe he thought he wasn't gonna get caught what a dumbiee anyway how many years is he gonna get

[Karl @ Aug 13th 2007 2:38PM]

He had plastic surgery more than once or twice. I was watching the news the other night (I live in Brazil) and they were interviewing the doctor that did his plastic surgery, who seemed to have had something to do with the capture (sorry, I was only half-paying attention, I will do better next time).

[Brian @ Aug 13th 2007 2:43PM]

Hopefully death.

Drug lords in Columbia are sadistic murderers...

[Froggy @ Aug 13th 2007 4:17PM]

cue in image from Simpsons movie of NSA HQ "Finally, the government has actually found someone it was looking for."