Crossword Genius

Spain and Portugal start to indict secret police chief (6)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

iberia

I'm a little stuck... Click here to teach me more about this clue!

'spain and portugal' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)

'start to indict secret police chief' is the wordplay.
'start to' says to take the initial letters.
'secret police chief' becomes 'beria' (I can't justify this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
The initial letter of 'indict' is 'i'.
'i'+'beria'='IBERIA'

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for iberia that I've seen before include "Peninsula encompasing Spain and Protugal" , "Peninsula housing Spain and Portugal" , "Overpower, overwhelm" , "European peninsula comprising Spain and Portugal" , "Spain and Portugal (6)" .)

I've seen this clue in The Guardian.
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