Plot to kidnap Prince Harry whilst he was on a gap year in Argentina led to royal security shake-up, national papers reveal

Police were ordered to beef up security planning for royal visits amid fears Prince Harry was almost kidnapped in Argentina during his gap year, National Archives files show.

The 20-year-old found himself at the center of a kidnapping scare in which gunshots were fired.

Security had to be increased at the poloranch in Lobos, 90 kilometers from Buenos Aires, where he was staying as part of a November 2004 visit to Argentina, which Cabinet Office documents describe as his “continuing training”.

The Argentine government was apparently informed of the kidnapping threat by a murder suspect from the local underworld.

The Ministry of Security responded by sending a team of fifteen armed police officers to patrol the edge of the El Remanso ranch. They fired shots into the air after two shots were fired in the area.

At a Cabinet Office meeting on the security of royals the following week, the following was ordered: ‘Given the recent publicity surrounding the possible kidnap threat to Prince Harry, the Metropolitan Police should seek advice as appropriate on the potential risks of kidnapping in countries which are visited by members of the royal family’.

Prince Harry enjoys practicing polo at a family friend’s Polo Farm in Argentina

Prince Harry smiles triumphantly and crouches next to the carcass of a recently killed water buffalo in Argentina

Another concern was the lack of RAF aircraft for royal and ministerial visits – with too many planes diverted to Tony Blair’s invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan.

Aircraft from No. 32 Squadron, based at RAF Northolt, were ‘increasingly involved in Theater of Defense duties’, an official noted in August 2004, a year and a half after the disastrous invasion of Iraq, adding that this was ‘a trend that are likely to continue’.

An official group studying the problem concluded that royals and ministers had “resorted to chartering individual civilian aircraft through a broker”, despite the added costs and “security concerns” of renting planes on which terrorists could have installed a device.

The latest version of files from the National Archives at Kew also reveals:

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