Jon Pernell Roberts (born John Riccobono; June 21, 1948 – December 28, 2011) was an American drug trafficker who operated in the Miami area and was an associate of the Colombian Medellín Cartel during the growth phase in cocaine trafficking, 1975–1986. Roberts was the author with Evan Wright of American Desperado.

The son of Sicilian-American mafioso Nat Riccobono, Roberts was born John Riccobono and raised in the Little Italy neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City. Nat Riccobono, an associate of Lucky Luciano, had emigrated illegally to the United States with his brothers from Sicily and was a caporegime in the Gambino crime family, operating gambling and loan-sharking operations in black neighborhoods of New York and New Jersey. Roberts' uncle, Joseph "Staten Island Joe" Riccobono, was consigliere of the Gambino family. As a child, Roberts accompanied his father on collection rounds as his father beat delinquent debtors. At the age of seven, he witnessed his father shoot a man to death in a traffic dispute.

Nat Riccobono was deported from the United States following a federal crackdown on the Mafia in the late 1950s, after which Roberts' mother had his surname changed. Roberts' mother died during a medical operation when he was thirteen years old, and he subsequently lived with his stepfather and then with various relatives, including a sister in Brunswick, Maine. In the early 1960s, Roberts was a member of the Outcasts, an Italian-American street gang in Teaneck, New Jersey. At the age of sixteen, he returned to New York and began working for his loan shark uncles as an enforcer and debt collector.

In 1965, at the age of seventeen, Roberts was arrested for kidnapping and attempted murder after a severely beaten debtor escaped from a basement "with a chair tied to him and no clothes on". Roberts later made claims that he was given an opportunity to expunge his criminal record with military service and subsequently joined the United States Army, serving for five years. However, none of his claims about his military service could be verified.

Roberts claimed to have served with the 101st Airborne for four years in Vietnam, though no records could be found proving his military service.

In American Desperado, Roberts recounts his service, saying that he enjoyed Army life. He made claims that he had served on a long-range reconnaissance patrol team and was selected for missions to carry out assassinations in Cambodia. According to Roberts, he and his team committed a variety of atrocities, including killing children and women of all ages, and torturing and skinning alive Viet Cong in retaliation for the enemy committing similar atrocities. In a 2009 interview with Gus Garcia-Roberts of the Miami New Times, Roberts said of his time in Vietnam: "I thought it was great. There were no rules. You could kill people, do whatever you want." In 2011, he told Guy Raz of All Things Considered: "Nobody really controlled us. And eventually after you do this for a while, you decide you're pretty much your own boss. And to me it was an education in how to do things."

Despite all of Roberts' claims about his time in Vietnam, journalist Evan Wright who profiled his life in the book American Desperado found absolutely no records of him ever serving in the military. This included a Freedom of Information request to the National Archives which showed no data on him ever fighting in the War in Vietnam or serving in the military. Jon was also unable to supply any material evidence of his service, including medals, pictures or memorabilia.

Roberts was an alleged associate in the Gambino family. Roberts has confessed to committing extortion, assault, money laundering, and racketeering in the early 1970s.^{[citation needed]}