Although as I noted, what's the purpose of a civilian AK-47? It's not useful even for organized crime. The only real thing the AK-47 is good for is guerrilla warfare.
The AK-47 action is fairly rugged and can take a lot of abuse. So for someone who doesn't want to have to deal with providing their gun lots of TLC to make certain it will work when needed, I can see them wanting a gun like the AK-47 for that reason.
Given the guy's name, he might have simply chosen the gun he was taught to use at high school. They did force us to learn how to play with the darn things back in the Soviet Union (I am proud to say, I miserably failed).
