February 23, 1981

In a move intended to force more competition in the citrus-fruit industry, the Federal Trade Commission today announced an antitrust settlement against the giant Sunkist cooperative. Sunkist, which controls 75 percent of the production and marketing of Western citrus fruit, will have to sell a major citrus processing plant in Yuma, Ariz., and insure that the new owners of the plant can compete by selling them up to 55,000 tons of citrus fruit a year. In addition, Sunkist, which has its headquarters in Sherman Oaks, Calif., is placed under other restraints by the consent agreement to limit its future expansion for a period of years.

At a time when the increased flow of heroin into New York is taxing the agencies charged with curbing it, the Federal Drug Enforcement Administration has sharply criticized its Northeast regional office's efforts against the problem. According to a year-end internal evaluation that has not been made public, the regional office has failed to produce enough drug confiscations and arrests. The evaluation said that the Northeast region - which has headquarters in New York and comprises 10 states from Maine to Delaware - received a ''disproportionate'' share of money and resources, but that its productivity did not reflect it. Decrease in Arrests Is Noted According to agency sources, the evaluation noted that while nationally figures on arrests had risen in the last three years, there had been a decrease in the Northeast for arrests, and specifically in arrests for the most serious drug-related felonies. In addition, it criticized the region for spending an ''inordinately high'' amount for operating expenses.

International Soviet presence in the Middle East will be given priority over resumption of Egyptian-Israeli negotiations on Palestinian self-rule by Secretary of State Alexander M. Haig Jr., who believes, according to American officials, that there is a major Soviet strategic threat to the region. In talks Friday with Foreign Minister Yitzhak Shamir of Israel, Mr. Haig was said to have made known the Administration's concerns over the strategic situation in the Middle East and its lack of enthusiasm for pushing the Palestinian autonomy talks to the center of attention. (A1:4.) Punitive action against Cuba ''was entirely possible'' if it continues its alleged shipment of arms to El Salvador's guerrillas, Edwin Meese 3d, President Reagan's chief policy adviser, said in a television interview. Mr. Meese said that it was time that Cuba and the Soviet Union ''wake up to the fact'' that the Administration ''will take the necessary steps to keep the peace any place in the world and that includes El Salvador.'' (A1:2-3.)

Just three months ago, Edward P. Croak, a top Wells Fargo auditing official, wrote in Pacific Banker & Business magazine that the bank was in an ''enviable position'' in the banking community because of its success in controlling embezzlement and fraud. But this month the bank filed a civil suit charging that a group of boxing promoters and two former bank employees had defrauded it of more than $21 million. Bankers and law enforcement officials say that full details are not yet known but that the evidence suggests a classic case of the dangers in the increasing use of computers in banking and in the proliferation of bank branches. If the charges prove true, the theft would be one of the biggest embezzlement or fraud cases in American banking history. No criminal charges have yet been filed. The Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Comptroller of the Currency have been called into the case, and intensive internal audits are continuing.

The jump shot, in addition to the devastating sky hook, is beginning to surface more and more in Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's game. He scored 32 points yesterday as the Los Angeles Lakers defeated the Knicks, 96-93, at Madison Square, and five of his dozen baskets came on short jumpers. But Abdul-Jabbar got what proved to be the game-winning basket with one minute remaining on a fast-break layup, taking an alley-oop pass from Michael Cooper to give the Lakers a 94-93 edge. Twenty-two seconds earlier a jumper by Bill Cartwright, on a pass from Michael Ray Richardson, provided the Knicks with a 1-point advantage.