BANGKOK (Reuters) - Thai officials have seized about 1,000 protected rat snakes which were apparently about to be smuggled to China, an enforcement officer said on Wednesday. Sawang Tipayanukool, a forestry department official at Bangkok's Don Muang International Airport, told Reuters that the snakes, wrapped in plastic bags and packed in about 80 air cargo crates, were left by unidentified smugglers in front of a customs warehouse. "We found them left in front of the cargo building and became suspicious. The officials checked and found the snakes. We suspect the crates were heading for China because there was a flight to south China later in the day," he said. Officials also found about 20 crates containing frozen prawns in the area, raising suspicion that the smugglers were trying to pack the reptiles into seafood or animal containers, he added. Rat snakes are not venomous and are regarded as useful to farmers because they eat rats that ravage paddy fields. The Chinese drink the snake's blood because they believe it will improve their health. The rescued snakes were later sent to a wildlife farm run by the forestry department in the central province of Ratchaburi.