Valley to north, secret service found place in Spain (8)
I believe the answer is:
valencia
'place in spain' is the definition.
'valencia' can be an answer for 'spain' (I've seen this before). I am unsure of the 'place in' bit.
'valley to north secret service' is the wordplay.
'valley' becomes 'vale' (synonyms).
'to north' becomes 'N' (abbreviation).
'secret service' becomes 'cia' (I can't justify this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'vale'+'n'+'cia'='VALENCIA'
'found' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for valencia that I've seen before include "European area" , "European city" , "Spanish city and region" , "port in the Med" , "somewhere in Spain)" .)