In May 1987, Itsik Ben-Eli, an emigre who was being sought for questioning in a homicide in Brighton Beach the month before, was arrested at Kennedy airport with a woman who had 700 grams of heroin - about 1 1/2 pounds -taped to her body. Mr. Ben-Eli's fingerprints were later found on the tape. He was also carrying two freshly minted counterfeit $100 bills. At his sentencing in Federal court in Brooklyn, a man claiming to represent an Israeli organization urged the court to let Mr. Ben-Eli serve his sentence in Israel. The judge sentenced him to five years in Federal prison. Growing Violence Desperate Victim Shoots Loan Shark

Much of the violent crime inside Soviet emigre communities can be traced to protection and loan sharking rackets seen among other immigrant groups. Often, it is only when these transactions turn violent that they become known to the authorities. People familiar with the Russian-speaking community say transplanted ''People's Courts'' exist, where men of influence settle disputes, some of them brought over from the old country.

One emigre, Valery Zlotnikov, was repeatedly hounded over a debt by another emigre, Felix Furman, a convicted killer who had managed not only to escape prison in Colorado but also to jump bail on a gun charge in New York. Mr. Furman furthermore was acquitted of attempted extortion, even though an exchange of money took place under the eyes of the police. Last December, in despair, Mr. Zlotnikov shot Mr. Furman dead on the street in Brighton Beach and turned himself in.

In another convoluted case, a grocer named Vyacheslav Lyubarsky was strung up from a ceiling light in his store when he failed to repay $40,000 he lost in a card game. He later shot one of his tormentors and, with two reputed Mafia members, went on to stage a faked jewelry robbery in Chicago, in an abortive attempt to collect a $750,000 insurance claim. ''They even beat up a woman to add credibility,'' said Detective Peter Grinenko, a Russian-speaking investigator assigned to Brooklyn District Attorney's squad.

American law-enforcement officials acknowledge they are ill-equipped to deal with the cultural and language complexities of the Soviet emigre crime problem. While the F.B.I. has a task force that often deals with these crimes, their Russian-speaking agents are generally reserved for counterintelligence work. In New York City, the Police Department's leading intelligence analyst for Soviet emigre crime, Joel Campanella, retired this month, and associates are ncncerned that his expertise has been lost.

Two years ago, the police intelligence section lost another expert, a Russian-speaking police officer who could answer a police hot line number circulated in Brighton Beach for tips on criminal activity. One day recently, when a distraught Russian-speaking woman called twice, offering information, there was no one at the police desk who could understand her.